Concern on funding for hospital services

Hospital Action TD for Cavan-Monaghan, Mr Paudge Connolly has expressed concern at the lack of start dates or funding approval…

Hospital Action TD for Cavan-Monaghan, Mr Paudge Connolly has expressed concern at the lack of start dates or funding approval for the return of specific services at Monaghan General Hospital.

A meeting between executives from the North Eastern Health Board and consultants from Monaghan General Hospital last night yielded no further decisions on the services to be supplied by Cavan and Monaghan hospitals.

Mr Connolly had earlier sought a precise timetable at a special board meeting last week to discuss the recently published Bonner report into services at Monaghan General Hospital but received no response. There was no approval to spend any of the €14 million in answer to his query on this also.

Mr Connolly said he was very disappointed with the meeting: "It's the management's responsibility to ensure that they leave the room with a plan for the hospital. It's an executive cop-out to pass the poison chalice on to the consultants and get them to sort it out between themselves," he said.

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He believes the Bonner report failed to capture the frustration among staff at Monaghan General Hospital and called the report's "woolly prospect of a 'midwife-led' maternity service some 3-4 years down the road woefully inadequate".