A retired surgeon has compared the Western Health Board's handling of the delay in opening the orthopaedic unit at Mayo General Hospital to the "Darby O'Gill school of economics and health management".
The unit was due to open on July 1st, but has been deferred until September.
Mr Joe Johnston says the latest press release from the health board, saying that 33 positions for the unit had been processed, "is like telling fairy tales to the little people, but keeping the rainbow away from them".
He claimed many of the people offered positions were being redeployed until the unit opened. Some doctors were being asked to work 50 miles away in the Merlin Park Hospital in Galway.
"A senior theatre sister has been offered a junior post on the wards, while a senior occupational therapist has been offered hours in the Sacred Heart Home. The rest of her days are to be spent, I presume, playing marbles in the (Mayo General) hospital because there are no patients for her to see. This is really the Darby O'Gill school of economics and health management," said Mr Johnston
Mayo TD Dr Jerry Cowley, (Ind) said another protest rally would be planned for next week if talks between health board officials and the Department of Health, planned for today, do not have a positive outcome.
Several thousand attended a protest rally last week over the delay in opening the unit.