Concerned locals from north Tipperary attended a public meeting in Nenagh last night about the recommended downgrading of Nenagh General Hospital and the loss of its accident and emergency services.
Mr David Hanly, chairman of the National Task Force on Medical Staffing, and a group of consultants involved with the writing of the report, attended the meeting organised by Nenagh Town Council.
Locals voiced their opposition to the proposals in the Hanly Report, and said they were not prepared to see their hospital downgraded. Under the Hanly Report Nenagh General Hospital would lose its accident and emergency services and have its status reduced to that of "local" hospital.
An information leaflet, provided to the public attending the meeting, by the authors of the report, stated that:
"Nenagh will no longer take emergency admissions" and that "in future emergency medical technicians in ambulances will go to the scene, resuscitate and or stabilise casualties and bring them to Limerick Regional Hospital where the full range of skilled diagnostic, medical, surgical and anaesthetic care is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week".
"If a patient comes into Nenagh, as currently happens, they will be assessed and triaged appropriately," the leaflet stated. "Eventually, full 24/7 medical cover on site will not be required for patients treated in Nenagh. Full on-site nursing cover will continue to be provided at all times," the leaflet added.
Senator Kathleen O'Meara (Lab) said the recommendations of the report were flawed and should not be implemented.
She said centralising acute and emergency health care in large regional hospitals, while small hospitals were being downgraded, was being seriously questioned in Britain where it has being implemented.
She added that 50 per cent of medical admissions in the State were to smaller hospitals and with a shortage of 3,000 acute beds nationwide, the closure of beds in smaller hospitals would create a crisis.
At a briefing before the meeting, Mr Hanly said the report's recommendations would "have significant benefits for the people of the region and for the people of north Tipperary in particular".
He said there would be a much wider range of patient services available in Nenagh hospital on a day-to-day basis because of increases in the numbers of consultants in the region.
"As a consequence of that, and having bigger teams of consultants available, we will be able to extend the outpatient services and the routine day procedures and day surgeries and medical procedures in Nenagh hospital which are just not possible at the moment because there are not enough people there," he said.
Nenagh's town mayor, Mr Tommy Morgan, said he would "push hard for our hospital to be kept in a proper condition. Nenagh is a lifeline to saving lives and if they're talking about the downgrading of the A&E at the hospital, it is not on," he said.