A large crowd turned out in Kells, Co Meath on Friday to protest against the HSE’s proposed downgrading of the emergency department in Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan.
More than 1,000 people attended the march which was led two hearses intended to symbolise what the organisers regard as the life or death struggle to keep the unit open.
The chairman of the Save Navan Hospital campaign and TD for Meath West Peadar Toibín was scathing about the proposals as he addressed the crowd outside the HSE offices in the north Meath town.
He criticised the health group’s managers, claiming that the proposed downgrade was the product of their lack of understanding of the unit’s importance and the challenges faced by those who work in it.
Blindboy: ‘I left my first day of school feeling great shame. The pain of that still rises up in me’
What time is the Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano fight? Irish start time, Netflix details and all you need to know
Gladiator II review: Don’t blame Paul Mescal but there’s no good reason for this jumbled sequel to exist
Spice Village takeaway review: Indian food in south Dublin that will keep you coming back
[ Handling of Navan hospital reconfiguration by HSE criticised by DonnellyOpens in new window ]
“Senior HSE management, the ones who make this decision, have no experience, absolutely none, zero, of what it is like to work on the front line. They have no experience of what staff who work there face in terms of overcrowding,” he said.
“They do not have to endure 12-hour waits in Drogheda’s Lourdes Hospital or, even worse, 24-hour waits in A&E in Tallaght. Yet they are prepared to feed more and more patients into both those locations.
“If you haven’t access to care in an emergency you are in trouble. I have lost count of the number of people who rang me and said: ‘Peadar, our loved one never made it to the A&E, they died on the way. Are we going to allow that happen in Navan too?’
“The crowds we have had at previous rallies, and this one, is scaring health minister Stephen Donnelly. The one thing any minister fears is feet on the street.
“My final message to the HSE mandarins is this: You will be many, many years drawing your big pension before we give up this fight.”
Fianna Fáil’s Senator Shane Cassells criticised the review currently of the proposals currently in progress. “The HSE are taking us for fools,” he said. “This review is going to be a fairytale and we have shown them today we don’t believe in fairytales.”
Sinn Féin’s Darren O Rourke praised those had turned out to show their support for the campaign. “Your efforts have made a difference; they have kept the A&E open so far and this campaign will ensure it stays open.
“Another thing that makes a huge difference is the fact that we have right on our side, our fight is the right fight for the right cause,” he said
Siptu official John Regan hammered home the point that Ireland’s largest mine Tara Mines operates in Navan, and emphasised the necessity of having an A&E close to it.
“Miners and, equally importantly, the families of miners need to know there is a fully functional A&E available locally.
‘My fear is that minister Donnelly will try and string this out until the next person takes over the department in a few months time when we have a change of Taoiseach. We cannot allow that to happen.”
None of the Government Meath TD’s, European Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Fine Gael Damien English Damien English attended the event.