"The Case for Re-opening Ennis, Nenagh and St. John’s A&Es"
A public meeting last night heard calls for the new Mayor of Limerick to make it a priority to campaign to re-open regional A&Es to take pressure off UHL.
The meeting on “The Case for Re-opening Ennis, Nenagh and St. John’s A&Es” heard from Mary Cahilane of the Mid-West Hospital Campaign, as well as Cian Prendiville who led the campaign against centralisation of A&E services 15 years ago.
The meeting was hosted by People Before Profit Mayoral candidate Ruairí Fahy, who pledged that he would use the position of Mayor to organise a major Town Hall meeting on the crisis in UHL, inviting the Minister, HSE and UHL management as well as campaigners and the public.
“We need an activist Mayor who will use that position to champion key causes, and crisis at UHL is a crucial one. As Mayor I would organise a major Town Hall meeting i, open to all of LImerick, to discuss the health crisis and hear from the Minister for Health, HSE and UHL management as well as the health campaigners and staff on the ground.
“Such a gathering would be a chance for those in power to hear for themselves the shocking stories I’ve been hearing on the doors. This should be organised in Autumn, before any General Election and be an opportunity to push all the parties to include reopening the local A&Es in their manifestos. As Mayor, I would like to use that position to amplify the voices of local campaigners, and maximise the pressure on all the parties.
“Unfortunately, as it stands, only People Before Profit have pledged to support the reopening of these A&Es. We need to step up the pressure on the others in the run up to an election, and I believe the Mayor can help in that.”
“The centralisation of A&E services in UHL has been a disaster. Fianna Fail and the Greens started it, Fine Gael and Labour continued it and worryingly even Sinn Fein are now refusing to promise to reverse it. That means we need to use these elections to put them all under pressure, and demand our A&Es are reopened and we build a top quality health service.”
