Hospital action groups opposed to the Hanly report on the future of the health service are to set up a state-wide campaign to oppose plans to centralise acute hospital services, write Mark Brennock, Tim O'Brien, Dr Muiris Houston
The move to co-ordinate opposition to the report, a key element of the Government's health reform package, comes as the Cabinet is expected to discuss the continuing fallout from the Michael Smith affair tomorrow.
The level of opposition to the plan was underlined yesterday by the chairwoman of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) consultant committee and other prominent specialists who strongly criticised the report.
Speaking after a meeting on Saturday of the Irish Association of Internal Medicine, an organisation representing medical specialists, Dr Christine O'Malley, a consultant geriatrician at Nenagh General Hospital said: "Hanly is completely unworkable and will not happen."
The Irish Times has also learnt that Dr Kate Ganter, former president of the IMO, wrote to Mr Hanly expressing her concern at the lack of an evidence base for decisions arrived at by the National Task Force on Medical Planning, which compiled the report.
The IAIM meeting in Wexford, which was attended by 40 consultants from Dublin, Limerick, Tipperary and Ballinasloe, is to issue a statement later this week outlining the organisation's concerns.
Medical sources said it was significant that the attendance included specialists from larger hospitals in Dublin as well as from regional centres and smaller units.
Meanwhile, the Ennis Hospital Action Group is to link up with other such groups in an attempt to form a state-wide campaign to resist Hanly.
The main element of the report's recommendations involves the centralisation of acute hospital services in regional "centres of excellence", leading to the loss in local hospitals of some services, such as accident and emergency units.
Some 15,000 people protested in Ennis on Saturday against any proposals to take services away from Ennis General Hospital.
The protest was supported by Fianna Fáil's two TDs and two senators in Clare.
Nine TDs, including many from the Opposition and neighbouring constituencies, attended.
With a similar protest in defence of Nenagh General Hospital to take place within a fortnight, there are concerns that other Fianna Fáil deputies will break ranks and join those opposing the changes rather than campaign to persuade their constituents that the reforms are worthwhile.
The organiser of the Ennis campaign, Mr Joe Arkins, said his group had decided to invite members of all hospital protest groups to attend a meeting in Nenagh after the protest march planned for November 29th.
While the Hanly issue is not on tomorrow's Cabinet agenda, sources have said ministers were likely to discuss last week's damaging stand-off between the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, which eventually ended in a statement of "regret" on Friday evening.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, is said to be keen for a public signal that the Government is determined to proceed with reforms after a week in which his Mr Smith three times expressed unhappiness about how they would affect his constituency.
While Mr Ahern successfully insisted that Mr Smith issue a statement on Friday, one Government source has noted his statement was "far from abject He repeated his position. He just regretted the fact that everybody except him saw his remarks as being against Government policy".
However, despite the long stand-off, one Government source said yesterday that the outcome was a good one, because it avoided a resignation or sacking.
Such a dramatic development would have turned Mr Smith into a "political martyr" and turned the Hanly report into an even more major issue than it is now, the source said.