LOUTH HOSPITAL SERVES AS WARNING TO NENAGH

Issued : Friday 25 June, 2010

Local MEP Alan Kelly is calling for immediate clarification surrounding the provision of services at Nenagh Hospital from July 1st.

Kelly said “The possibility of a doctor’s shortage at the hospital has been widely circulated for months and the people of Nenagh and North Tipperary are still left in the dark as to the future of their hospital.

Just last week we learned of a similar case at Louth Hospital, which may close as an acute hospital at the end of June due to a shortage of doctors in an exact copy of what is happening at Nenagh.

Acute services at Louth Hospital will close with centralisation of all acute services to Drogheda if the HSE is unsuccessful in recruiting enough doctors’ meet the needs of the hospital.

 

This pattern of reducing services at local, smaller hospitals is being repeated all across the country, with communities denied critical, life-saving care in their local area. “

The Labour MEP added “We are just days away from the July deadline and we have still not received a clear answer as to what will happen

 

If Nenagh does not have sufficient numbers of junior doctors to fill the hospitals requirements, it will have very serious and long term implications for the future of the hospital.

 

Contingency plans have been discussed by the HSE in the event of a junior doctor’s shortage but we still do not know what they would involve.

 

The HSE must answer the urgent questions surrounding the provision of acute services at Nenagh Hospital before it’s too late and the services are lost forever.”