MAXWELL CALLS ON PUBLIC TO USE MONAGHAN HOSPITAL SERVICES

16 March 2012 One Comment by The Northern Standard

An 11% increase in the number of people using Monaghan General Hospital’s day care services was highlighted at the March meeting of Monaghan Co Council by Fine Gael’s David Maxwell.
Colr Maxwell called on the public to be aware of the services that were still being provided at the hospital and to make use of them.
The meeting agreed to again call on FG TDs for Cavan/Monaghan Sean Conlan and Heather Humphreys to make representations to Minister for Health Dr James Reilly to secure a meeting for a Co Council delegation in order to discuss service provision at the hospital.
The lack of any response to this request in the correspondence before the members was remarked on by Sinn Féin’s Brian McKenna, who proposed that the Council write to Deputies Conlan and Humphreys asking them to continue to seek a meeting for the Council with the Minister. He pointed out that the Council had been looking for this meeting for over 12 months.
Colr McKenna said the situation at the hospital had not improved one iota – the recent Service Plan adopted by the HSE contained minimum expenditure for it. In relation to the Medical Assessment Unit they all hoped would come into play there, a recent announcement stated that the hospital did not require it, but the HSE was looking at the issue of rapid assessment clinics, “whatever they are.”
“In the Service Plan it is as you were,” Colr McKenna stated, although Colr Maxwell interjected to differ with this assessment and refer to the increase in the use of the hospital’s day care services.
Colr McKenna insisted that the situation at the hospital had not changed, and no new provision was being made there. The Minister had previously stated that local hospitals would have a key role in the provision of services but they were not seeing this on the ground.
FG’s Hugh McElvaney voiced disappointment that Minister Reilly hadn’t seen fit to meet a delegation from Monaghan Co Council. In fairness a delegation of FG party members was met by Minister Reilly.
Colr McElvaney said he was disappointed that the Minor Injury Unit hours at the hospital had not been increased, but the FG members were working continually to have this done.
He had recently listened to Bridget Clarke of the HSE on the radio, and she said there was going to be hundreds of future developments at Monaghan General Hospital. He called on the Co Council’s representatives on the Regional Health Forum to find out if this was a fact – if it was, it should be “put on the table” so that they could see in fairness that Monaghan General Hospital was not being ignored.
Fianna Fáil councillor Robbie Gallagher said …

One Comment »

  • John Murphy said:

    To be honest I think David Maxwell is a muppet…..there are people among us who are using private health care services in Dublin and then pretending to care about our public health service in Monaghan……the janus face of Fine Gael politics never fails to amuse me…..