Council hit back at hospital 'scare-mongering'

 

A council meeting has accused the media of “scare-mongering” over recent reports of the possible downgrading of the trauma department at Cavan General Hospital.
Cllr Madeleine Argue referenced a recent story in the Sunday Business Post about a hospital report “not yet in” and that it was “all just speculation, if there’s no news bad news comes up”, she said.
Cllr Damien Brady, a fireman by trade, said that he recently witnessed a “three-casualty accident” which tied up the county’s only two ambulances. In cases where someone is “seriously ill or injured”, he said, “there is a golden hour” to get to the injured party.
He described the possibility of not having any ambulances in the county, should the A&E be downgraded as “very worrying”.
He urged Oireachtas members to act “sooner rather than later” for more ambulances for the county .
Cllr Peter McVitty said “the message must be put out [from the Chamber] that we have a very good hospital”.
“If we have 1,000 good cases and one wrong one, where a mistake was made, we never talk about the other 99%,” he said.
Cllr Paddy McDonald said the hospital was “as fine a hospital as ever mentioned” in media reports.
Kingscourt’s Cllr Clifford Kelly said that he was “very fortunate” to have Cavan General Hospital on two recent occasions and complimented the care received “on all levels”.
He said the hospital had his full support that he would fight “tooth and nail” so that there would be “absolutely no downgrade” and that he fully supported the Save Navan Hospital campaign which fought for the same.
Cllr Carmel Brady said that on a recent visit to the medical assessment unit that between 10.10am and 8.50pm, 43 people were seen by staff and only three had to be admitted due to the high standard of care, “meaning A&E is relieved of huge pressure”, making it “one of the best in Ireland”.
She said a “serious problem” for the staff was people presenting with “a broken finger, when they could have gone to their GP,” and people presenting with “an in-grown toenail”.
Cathaoirleach Cllr Fergal Curtin said two of his children were born in the hospital, that his father had passed away there and urged vigilance to be exercised by Oireachtas members over any potential reduction of services.
The Sunday Business Post wrote that it had seen the contents of an internal report recommending downgrading of trauma or emergency departments at nine hospitals, a spokesperson for Health Minister Simon Harris later said that though the report had not been seen by the minister there were no plans to cut any such departments.