HEALTHCARE:SMALLER HOSPITALS must close if Ireland is to have a quality health service, Green Party leader John Gormley said in Dublin last night. He was speaking at a public meeting in Rathmines Town Hall in defence of his party's decision last year to support the planned closure of cancer services at St Luke's hospital in Rathgar.
The meeting was attended by more than 200 people and most candidates in the Dublin South East constituency. Absent were Labour TDs Ruairí Quinn, who had a previous engagement, and Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews.
Mr Gormley said a new government could overturn the decision on St Luke’s but he forecast it would not do so. The Government announced last year that cancer services at the hospital would be closed on a phased basis by 2014.
Challenged by a number of speakers on the decision, Mr Gormley said his party had agreed with it following “the best medical advice from Tom Keane”, who had been appointed by the Health Service Executive to set up cancer centres of excellence.
Independent candidate Mannix Flynn referred to the closure of the Adelaide, Mercers and St Ultan’s and said the hospitals were “asset stripped” with “an eye on the land”.
