FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin accused the Government of abandoning “crystal-clear commitments” made relating to Roscommon County Hospital.

“Why did the Taoiseach personally claim yesterday that the hospital’s future is secure when the evidence shows that this is not true?”

Mr Martin produced an open letter from Minister for Health Dr James Reilly, then Fine Gael spokesman in opposition, in which he said his party would retain the emergency surgical, medical and other health services at the hospital.

In March, said Mr Martin, Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten, now chairman of the Oireachtas Health Committee, had said his party had firmly put a halt to any HSE plans to withdraw services from smaller hospitals and that it would not only protect but would enhance and develop those services.

It had been revealed, he added, that arrangements were being made to end all emergency admissions and convert the hospital into a basic day-case facility within a few weeks.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he had met a number of concerned people on Monday when he opened Mr Naughten’s constituency office outside Athlone.

“We have always held the view that small hospitals have a real future in a restructured and revamped health system and Roscommon is no different from that.”

He said the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) had stated it was unsafe to continue the accident and emergency unit in its current form. For that reason, compounded by difficulties in recruiting non-consultant hospital doctors, the system would change after July 11th.

“The Government’s priority on acute hospitals is to ensure that there is safe, high-quality care for patients, provided at the most appropriate location.”

Mr Kenny said there was not 24- hour cover for anaesthetics in Roscommon. The medical evidence now available was that trauma patients being attended to by paramedics on site, then transferred to a high-volume hospital, had an increased chance of living.

That was a major consideration for everybody.

Mr Kenny said the Minister for Health had direct contact with the HSE, Hiqa and the hospital’s clinicians, who had put forward their own proposals.

“From that perspective, the future of Roscommon is safe,” he added. “It will not conduct its business as it did previously, but there are elements within the hospital that will increase in activity and scale.”

Describing the Taoiseach’s response as “extraordinary”, Mr Martin said Mr Kenny and Dr Reilly had full knowledge of all the issues involved before the election. He challenged Mr Kenny to say why promises had been made.

“In advance of the election, as opposition spokesman, the Minister for Health wrote to the clinical director of operations in the HSE and told him to stop the configuration plans because he would be Minister in a month and would sort this out,” Mr Martin said.

“That might have appeared a great political stroke at the time, but why did he make those promises?”

Mr Kenny said that when Dr Reilly was contesting the election, he was not in possession of the information about the difficulties surrounding the recruitment of non-consultant hospital doctors.