A CONSULTANT has accused Independent Galway West TD Noel Grealish of trying “do a Tony Gregory deal” with the health service in his constituency.
This approach will be of “no benefit” to health services elsewhere, consultant child psychiatrist Dr Peadar O’Grady told a march over health cuts in Galway at the weekend.
Mr Grealish, who also attended the rally, said late last week that the Government could no longer rely on his support until the issue of health cuts in the west was clarified.
Minister for Health Mary Harney is due to meet him next week, but has ruled out any deal.
Dr O’Grady, who works for the HSE and is a member of the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP), said he was speaking at Saturday’s march in a personal capacity. He told about 350 demonstrators that the health cuts were being imposed to pay for the Government’s “bail-out” of banks, rather than to achieve efficiencies.
The protest was organised by the Galway No to Health Cuts Campaign, but politicians were not invited to speak as it was a non-political grouping, spokesman Brendan Gallagher explained. The event was supported by members of trade unions Siptu and Impact, the Labour Party and the SWP.
Fine Gael TD Pádraig McCormack, Fine Gael senator Fidelma Healy Eames and HSE West regional health forum chairman Cllr Padraig Conneely also attended, along with city residents, some of who are patients at the hospital.
Commenting after the demonstration, HSE West regional forum chairman Mr Conneely said he believed Mr Grealish was “grandstanding” after a private briefing given to local politicians last week by senior HSE West management.
Mr Conneely said HSE West’s clinical director for acute services and continuing care in Galway/Roscommon, Dr David O’Keeffe, had told the politicians last Thursday that it was “medically unsafe” to impose any more cuts, and said he had informed the HSE of this.“This is more about Mr Grealish’s political career than patient care.”
Mr Grealish was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Meanwhile, a rally in Cork heard Siptu is to launch a campaign opposing the proposed transfer of surgery services from St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital on the northside of the city.
Siptu branch secretary Joe O’Callaghan said the union was planning a campaign against the move of orthopaedic surgery from St Mary’s to the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital and he called on other unions to join them. He told a rally attended by over 500 staff, former staff, patients and ex-patients, and local residents in Gurranebraher that a united front between Siptu, the INMO and Impact could help stop the proposed transfer.
The rally, organised by the Campaign for a Real Public Health Service, heard that almost 4,000 people have signed a pledge promising not to vote for Fianna Fáil or the Greens if the proposed move of services goes ahead next March.
The proposed transfer of orthopaedic services from St Mary’s to the South Infirmary Victoria was revealed last May as part of the HSE South’s controversial reconfiguration of acute hospital services in Cork and Kerry.