Scairbh

Na

gCaorach

EMYVALE

Minor Injuries Unit Reduction

The proposal by the HSE to reduce the opening hours of the Minor Injuries Unit at Monaghan General Hospital has been given the ‘green light’ by the Minister and the Government as the answer Deputy Smith, Cavan, received in the Dail last week shows that Dr. Reilly has no intention of changing the minds of the HSE. There has been confusion regarding the start date for the reduction in hours but November 1st now seems the most likely date. I would be more inclined to believe that it will happen on October 31st as these type of actions usually fall on a Bank Holiday.

When Fine Gael and Dr. Reilly assumed office we thought, based on the many promises made to us by these men, that Monaghan General Hospital would be enhanced and developed further but instead the promises have been broken and we have to bear a 50%+ reduction in the opening hours of our MIU. Our TDs – Sean Conlon and Heather Humphreys - tell us that they are doing their best to get this decision reversed. Well their best is not good enough. Dublin is not listening to them, in fact it is ignoring them. Now I could remind them of the fate suffered by Fianna Fail when they stopped listening to their TDs and confined decision-making to the top three or four in the party. Fine Gael is falling into the same trap.

Dr. Reilly gave the country to understand that when he would get into power he would get rid of the ‘dysfunctional’ HSE and reform the management of the health services. Alas he got rid of the Board, which achieved nothing, but what about the rest? All is still in place and the wastage continues and the crisis management continues and the problems keep mounting up. Our health services are getting worse by the week and still they carry on with their plans which are proving useless.

Since the foundation of the Alliance we have told the truth as we saw it and we warned, as far back as September 2002, that the plan was to reduce Monaghan General Hospital to a glorified Nursing Home. We were ‘scaremongering’ the public was told. Now the HSE is within reach of their goal and there are still people claiming that we are ‘scaremongering’. This tune was used by Fianna Fail people – now it is Fine Gael people using the same tune.

In many ways and methods we have made requests to Fine Gael and Labour to restore services to Monaghan. We have begged them to reverse this decision to cut the MIU hours. They have ignored every request and plea. They have made excuse after excuse. They have also ignored us as they will not even respond to communications from the Alliance. At this time Fine Gael and Labour, who also made definite promises to Monaghan, are hoping to get their men elected as President of our country. Can we believe people who break promises? They are very anxious to get our votes. They really want their man to win. They want that just as much as we want our services restored. Now fair is fair – if they ignore us then we must ignore them. That is why we are asking the people of this county to think before they vote. Are they going to vote for parties who are so deaf to our pleas and who are so callous as to take our health services away.