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EMYVALE

Minister Reilly Responds

At long last the Minister of Health, or should we say the Minister’s Office, has replied to our request for the names of those appointed to the Review Group set up to report on the sustainability and viability of an MAU in Monaghan General Hospital. The Minister tells us: ‘A representative group has been established by the HSE to undertake a feasibility study on the development of a Medical Assessment Unit in Monaghan Hospital. This independent feasibility study will establish if there is a clinical need for a Medical Assessment Unit in Monaghan Hospital for the Monaghan population. The group will also establish the pay and non-pay costs and internal/external support services associated with the establishment and running of a MAU in Monaghan’. He goes on: ‘The group commenced its work on Monday 17th October 2011 and the timeframe for completion of the project is 6 – 8 weeks’.

The membership of the Group is as follows:
Dr Louise Doherty, Specialist in Public Health Medicine, HSE North West
Dr  James  Hayes,  Consultant  Physician & Clinical Director, HSE Cavan General Hospital
Ms Eileen Whelan, Director of Nursing, HSE Louth/Meath Hospital Group, OLOL Drogheda
Ruth Murdiff, (Service User Panel Representative)
Mr Robert Dancey, (Service User Panel Representative)
Mr  Gerry  Clerkin,  Risk Advisor,  Risk Management  Dept,  HSE Cavan & Monaghan Hosp.
Mr  Cathal  Hand,  Development Officer Primary & Community Care,  HSE Cavan/Monaghan
Dr Ilona Duffy, General Practitioner, Monaghan.

Our comments:

1. This is supposed to be a ‘representative group’? It was established by the HSE and has five HSE employees out of the eight members, yet this is supposed to be ‘representative’?

2. This is supposed to be ‘independent’? How can it be independent when there is a majority of the members employees of the HSE. We do not trust the HSE as it has proven time and time again to have no regard for the plight of Monaghan patients.

3. The group began work on October 17th and completion of the project was expected in 6 to 8 weeks. That would take them up to Monday, December 12th which is next Monday. From what I hear it will never happen and will not be complete until late January, unless they rush things and fail to carry out a proper feasibility study by taking figures from the air and trying to convince us that they are accurate.

4. This independent and representative group has two representatives from the Service User Panel. We do not know who these people are? Where do they come from? how did they become members of the Service User Panel? Who set up the panel? how were these two people selected? Who selected them? Who gave them the right to represent the people of Monaghan? These questions need answers but we do not think that there is any point is asking the Minister or the HSE as we will only get ‘spin’.

5. We have one representative in Dr. Illona Duffy but in a situation where it could be 7 to 1 she has little hope of influencing the decision-making process as the HSE has the strength and, in our opinion, do not want to see an MAU in Monaghan.

We would also like to let it be known that the Minister refuses to meet a delegation from the Alliance as ‘he is too busy’. Now where have we heard that before? How many times have we heard that before? At least it is a different secretary who is sending the replies. However when two Nursing Homes came under threat in Laois during the past month or so, action groups were formed to campaign against the closure. The Minister granted them a meeting within a fortnight and suspended the decision until consultation took place. These meetings were organised through the local Government TDs from those areas. We have asked our TDs to arrange a meeting but they were also told that he did not have the time. Now we ask – what power and methods of persuasion did the Laois TDs have that our TDs don’t have? How were the Laois TDs able to get the meeting at short notice when our TDs cannot get a meeting even with long notice. It was much easier to get James Reilly to come to Monaghan when he was in opposition and when he wanted to make promises to the people of Monaghan – promises which he has since broken. He stood before the people of Monaghan and promised how Monaghan would be if he was in power but that is not what he has done – rather he has done the opposite and continued the downsizing and downgrading begun by the previous Government in Monaghan. Now he tries to hide by blaming the HSE, the economic situation, the previous Government, the consultants, any and everyone except the person we blame – himself.