The proposed closure of a Dublin cancer hospital is an indictment of government policy on health, an MEP claimed today.
At a rally calling for the retention of services in St Luke's Rathgar, Sinn Fein's Mary Lou McDonald accused Minister for Health Mary Harney and her colleagues of pulling the rug from under cancer patients and their families.
"St Luke's Hospital as a provider of cancer care services in Dublin has an excellent reputation," the Dublin MEP said.
"It is this reputation that made it possible for the Friends of St Luke's to raise 22 million euro for the hospital. "Any sensible administration with a modicum of sense and compassion understands that a consistently high standard of care in a fully resourced environment is critical to a cancer patient and their family. St Luke's Hospital provides this, in spades.
"There has been minimal consultation with the staff and patients on its proposed closure which is all the more aggravated by the Department of Health's plan to move the hospitals services to St James and Beaumont as part of the government's co-location plans."
The minister has plans to close the specialist hospital and sell the site, moving the facilities to St James' Hospital.
However, a national 'Save St Luke's' campaign has been set up bringing together groups of patients, families and locals who want to save the public hospital and see it expanded. Protesters marched from the hospital today to the Central Bank demanding a government U-turn.
Ms McDonald told them: "This Government has had at their disposal resources undreamed of by any previous government. "Yet they have presided over a failing, chaotic and inequitable health services. They have failed to meet the needs of the people at national, regional and local level. PA