Protestors want local Emergency Departments reopened

Massive protests held in Limerick City at the weekend received strong support from people based in North Tipperary who want local hospital A&E services reinstated to ease hospital overcrowding. 

The 'Nenagh Needs it's A&E' campaign travelled to Limerick to lend their support and are calling for elected Dáil representatives to back their campaign.

Nenagh based Independent Councillor, Séamie Morris issued a letter this week echoing the call for TD's to join the campaign and said that  TD's in North Tipperary have failed since 2009 to "bury the will of the people" demanding the re opening of the 24-hour A&E department in Nenagh Hospital. 

"The 11000 people who marched in Limerick on Saturday gave the latest community response to The HSE and to politicians in the MidWest that they will not go away", Cllr. Morris said. 

"I noticed reps there from Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Michael Lowry himself turned up. It must be remembered that Michael Lowry supported the closure of the 24-hour A& E and ICU in Nenagh", Cllr. Morris said.

"Fine Gael and the Labor party were missing in action," he added.

Cllr. Morris said he is calling for a meeting of all the MidWest region's Dáil representatives with University Hospital Limerick's (UHL) management and HSE West forum members and representatives from the MidWest Hospital Campaign. 

The meeting would help establish why emergency health services collapsed over the Christmas period and answer why UHL did not receive the number of beds required, Cllr. Morris said.

An estimated 11,000 people gathered in Limerick city centre to take part in a march protesting continued overcrowding at UHL on Saturday as part of a national day of action, organised by groups around the country, to protest overcrowding in emergency departments.

Marches and demonstrations took place in Limerick, Navan and a number of locations around the country where there were pleas for increased capacity in hospital emergency departments and to stop downgrading services at others.

The Limerick protest was organised by the MidWest Hospital Campaign, with the Friends of Ennis Hospital group and the 'Nenagh Needs it's A&E' campaign protesting the repeated overcrowding at the region's only emergency department at UHL - the most overcrowded emergency department in the country.

Minister for Health Stephan Donnelly said he and his officials are engaging regularly with the HSE about the emergency department situation to improve access for patients and support healthcare workers.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said on Monday that reinstating downgraded Emergency Departments is not a realistic solution to current overcrowding problems.

“We’ve had an unprecedented level of disease this winter in terms of Covid-19 but particularly in terms of the flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus),” he told RTÉ Radio One.

He said reinstating downgraded Emergency Departments was not an option in the short-term. “In the area of emergency medicine, we have to be honest here,” he said.

“Politically, we can make promises and make commitments but the idea that you can suddenly restore accident and emergency departments with the full complement of anaesthetists, of emergency medicine consultants and other consultants and the full backup, I would have to say is not a realistic proposition in the short-term.

“All of this was not done politically (centralising ED provision in certain hospitals), all of this was done on the strength of clinical advice and medical advice, on the basis of what’s best for the patient. What’s the best outcome for the patient and how can the person survive best – they should go to a centre that has all of the disciplines, from cardiac right across,” he said.