Unacceptable Navan A&E Terms of Reference Means Hospital Campaign Will Scale up Protests – Tóibín
Cathaoirleach of the Save Navan Hospital Campaign Peadar Tóibín TD has said that the HSE Terms of Reference on the future of Navan A&E are not acceptable and will have to be rewritten. He stated;
“We in the Save Navan Hospital Campaign have brought over 50,000 people onto the streets of Meath over the last number of years in support of a functioning A&E in county Meath. We will not accept the Terms of Reference written by the HSE which have a predetermined result hardwired into them. The HSE Review over the future of Navan A&E will be undertaken by the many of the same people who carried out the original decision to close the A&E. Decisions being reviewed by the people who made them is a nonsense”.
“At a time of record A&E waiting times and overcrowding there is no mention of waiting times or overcrowding in the terms of reference. As we head into the winter and face another inevitable Covid wave, there is no mention of Covid in the terms of reference. Meath has the second largest population increase in the state according to the last census, yet there is no mention of this either”.
“Its important for the Government to know that the Save Navan Hospital Campaign is not messing about. We will hold a Public Meeting in the Newgrange Hotel, Navan on Tuesday, August 30th at 8pm. We seek to resolve this crisis in a constructive and positive manner. But the life and death health of the people of Meath and we are not going to stand idly by. We will remain within the law. We will be peaceful but we will take our protests to a new level of direct action if needs be. We are in communication with other hospital campaigns throughout the country and we will engage with people who have been left to languish on waiting lists in our failing health service.
"The Health Service is in crisis. It needs radical reform, resources and efficiencies. Closing key capacity in a capacity crisis will not be accepted. "
CRÍOCH
