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LAST UPDATE | 16 Sep 2022
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE gathered in Co Meath today to protest against the HSE proposal to close the emergency department in Navan’s Our Lady’s hospital.
The protest took place outside the HSE offices in Kells, with Campaign Cathaoirleach Peadar Tóibín TD, Senior SIPTU Official John Regan, Sinn Féin TD Darren O’Rourke, Fianna Fail Seanadóir Shane Cassells and independent Cllr Gillian Toole addressing the crowd.
Aontú’s leader Toíbín earlier said the protest would be led by a number of funeral directors “to underline the life and death consequences of this decision”.
Speaking after the rally, he said there was “palpable anger” among the protestors who gathered.
“That such a large crowd gathered in the middle of a working day in Kells shows just how important this service is to us. Our march was preceded by a number of funeral hearses to underscore the life and death issue that faces the people of Meath,” he said.
“In the middle of a A&E capacity crisis the HSE is seeking to close a busy A&E in one of the fastest growing counties in the country. Surrounding hospitals are beyond capacity. Each one of them over the summer has released a statement asking patients not to present due to overcrowding.”
The HSE has insisted that the new Medical Assessment Unit that would replace the emergency department service would still be able to facilitate around 80% of the current number of patients who present to the ED every day.
The remaining patients would be treated at Our Ladies of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
However, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly recently asked the HSE to carry out a review of capacity levels in light of a number of concerns being raised, particularly from consultants in Our Ladies of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, who said they had not been consulted about the plan.
A letter, signed by 17 consultants, stated that the “transfer of risk from an unsafe ED in Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan to an under-resourced Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda will lead to poorer clinical outcomes for patients”.
He said the HSE “refuse to even research a cost benefit analysis into a functioning and safe A&E” in Meath. They refuse to do a simple feasibility study to see what investment would be necessary to make our A&E safe. The HSE management are disconnected from the reality of the people. We have no confidence in them”.
“This campaign will continue until we have a cast iron guarantee of a properly funded A&E in Meath.
Speaking to The Journal before the rally, Tóibín said it was “incredible” that the proposed closure of the Navan A&E is taking place in the “middle of a capacity crisis”.
The HSE has insisted that the new Medical Assessment Unit that would replace the emergency department service would still be able to facilitate around 80% of the current number of patients who present to the ED every day.
The remaining patients would be treated at Our Ladies of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
However, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly recently asked the HSE to carry out a review of capacity levels in light of a number of concerns being raised, particularly from consultants in Our Ladies of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, who said they had not been consulted about the plan.
A letter, signed by 17 consultants, stated that the “transfer of risk from an unsafe ED in Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan to an under-resourced Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda will lead to poorer clinical outcomes for patients”.
Deputy Toíbín told The Journal that this underscores how “the frontline clinicians radically disagree with senior HSE management”.
He also dismissed plans for a Medical Assessment Unit because “GPs are as rare as hen’s teeth at the moment”.
The Aontú leader recently delivered a petition that was signed by over 15,000 people to the Health Minister and said over 20,000 have marched in protests against the A&E closure over the past ten months.
He called on the “political establishment to realise how important this issue is”.
The specialists called for an independent review of what is needed in the hospital before critically ill patients are diverted to Drogheda from Navan.
James Galligan, from Meath, was among those who attended the protest this afternoon.
“I wouldn’t be standing here today only for Navan accident and emergency,” he said.
“Years ago I had a motorbike accident and I had a bleed on the brain, I was unconscious for a fortnight, and underwent emergency surgery. If I had to go anywhere else I wouldn’t be here today. I was given little chance of survival.
“Everyone wanted me moved out of Navan to go to Dublin but I was told that I was in the safest place and I am here to prove that. It’s so important for Navan A&E to stay open.
“There are so many new houses being built in the locality and it is essential to us.The feeling here is that some people say if they are going to do it, they will do it, but we have to fight it. Nothing else is gained if you do not fight for it.
“We need the A&E in Navan, and it’s crazy to downgrade it.”
Deirdre Butler, from Kells, also attended the protest today. She said the hospital in Navan saved her life.
“I got a bad dog bite years ago and I had to be operated on. I was very lucky that Navan hospital was there. If that hospital was to close I don’t know how I would have made it,” she said.
“I owe my life to them. It would be a total disaster if they closed the A&E. The other hospital won’t be able to cope. If I had to go to Drogheda hospital I would have to get a bus to Kells, up to Navan then over to Drogheda.
“There’s no transport going from here (Kells) to Drogheda.”
Additional reporting from the Press Association
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This country really has turned into a Slum.
Why am I not surprised it’s beyond a joke at this stage
@Kenny Jones: sex always has been and always will be a currency……
I remember a Rathmines landlord having this kind of “arrangement” with a tenant as far back as 1992. He had a wife and kids in Navan at the time. Not a new phenomenon at all.
@Jane Gunnigan: The wife in Navan will now be checking on her husband’s property in Rathmines I992. Thing could get hot!
@Jane Gunnigan: Durable relationship
@Patrice Ahern: The marriage would be considered a durable relationship and exploitative relationship would not… really isn’t that difficult.
@Diarmuid Hunt: I wouldn’t bet on the marriage remaining a durable relationship either, and many, many are not.
@Thomas Sheridan: I would think that in the context of law that it would be especially in an scenario where it is in comparison to sex-for-rent arrangement.
Economists warned our political class that all the evidence internationally says that introducing rent caps, eviction bans etc etc in a market where the main issue is lack of supply will result in less supply, higher rents and they did not listen. SF are equally guilty as the main drum beaters for irresponsible policy. We need more politicians with engineering or science backgrounds, people who understand that words don’t create reality, and that cause leads to effect whether or not you wag your finger at it in the Dail. We need to build. Any policy to encourage building now is good. Any policy that discourages it is bad.
@Tom D: When it starts hurting FDI which must be close now they’ll start to do something. That’s all they understand.
@Tom D: We also need an electorate who will vote for such people – and telling the truth is not what people vote for. People vote to for money for nothing, basically. Daft policies come from daft politicians elected by said voters.
@Tom D: we also need less scammers and chancers claiming international protection
@Tom D: there is no lack of supply for houses in Ireland. The 2022 census listed 163,433 vacant properties in the country, most of them being in the Dublin region, with specialists saying this number could be over 180,000 in 2024. Saying there is a lack of supply is a bit of an oversimplification of the problem and doesn’t reflect the whole picture. While there is a shortage of available housing, there are a lot of reasons behind it, one of them being keeping the fallacy of housing crises to keep rent and property prices going up.
@Eduardo: One example of this is the apts by the ifsc at the Quays. The average occupancy level of some of those buildings is 60%. All apts are built to rent, but if landlords bring the rent down to increase occupancy, this will affect the prices of the other tenants, and bring down market evaluation in the area. So they keep a lower occupancy, and high rent. Nothing is as simple as the media portraits.
@Tom D: the Dail is full of Teachers (the only ones that have the time for canvassing) who have never ran anything but want to run the country!
A type of mania has set in. I got a notice for a 62% increase from what was previously a fair landlord. As young people work harder to satisfy this mania for a few blocks and a wooden roof, an unhealthy imbalance in society exists.
There is your survival of the fittest ( aggressive/greedy) with a younger generation playing along.
@Gerald Kelleher: The capitalist mania of taking advantage of anyone they can goes against what has, through the lens of evolution, made us a dominant species. You do yourself a disservice to equate the two.
No need to panic the government has the housing situation fully under control they have seen it worsen tremendously over the last 10 years and say if they are re-elected they will solve it this time. like they said the last time but this time they said they will,lessons learned by droves living in tents and inviting droves more in we will actually get to a stage that we may run out of tents as we have housing a great legacy by a government seeing the problems coming head on.
Will it also be illegal to offer sex in lieu of rent?
Vote no
Don’t make it an offence, make it a crime.
How do they get change back?
#your choice
How can they get away with advertising something like this? Bloody perverts.
If you have to sell your body so that you can study you would be better off forgetting college. No career is worth that.
@JP: But it is socially more acceptable with a sugar daddy, right?
Or for an EU passport or any desirable one?
This country has been in free-fall for years.. not surprised to read about this .There are plenty of schemers , scammers , strokers , shceisters , shady f#####s walking among us , that were born in this country .. yet still foreign nationals get demonised and scapegoated on a regular basis
have your say