The Workers’ Party have said that reports in yesterday’s Sunday Business Post (19/11/17) that emergency departments will be closed in three Dublin hospitals and several others including Cavan, Naas and Portlaoise are completely out of touch with reality.
Workers’ Party Meath representative Seamus McDonagh said the report was most alarming and if implemented would inevitably result in the deaths of trauma patients, particularly in rural Ireland. It would also put unbearable pressure on the remaining major trauma centres, one each at Dublin and Cork.
Mr. McDonagh said: “Any suggestion of the closure of between six and nine major trauma centres in this country must be strongly resisted. Replacing these with just two so-called centres of excellence ignores reality and assumes that it will be possible to convey critically injured patients to these centres in time to save their lives”.
“It is obvious that those behind reports of this nature have no conception of the realities of life in rural Ireland or indeed of the current status of emergency services which have been subjected to the same cutbacks and under-staffing that we see elsewhere in the health service”, said McDonagh.
The Workers’ Party spokesman said that this was the second time in just under a year in which reports of major reductions in trauma centre coverage were being recommended. These reports were extremely worrying and it is incumbent on the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, to come clean on what plans are afoot.