Hospitals a key issue coming up on Tipperary doorsteps for Election candidates

Countywide voting may now be divided but the same issues are faced by both north and south, even if they are not presented in the same examples.

A key issue faced by much of the electorate throughout Tipperary is access to healthcare.

Perhaps most obvious in the north where many have been affected by the crisis in University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

People throughout the country will be very familiar with the situation in UHL’s A&E but candidates are being told on doorsteps and at public forums that people are genuinely afraid to be faced with having to go into UHL in an emergency situation. The sentiment throughout north Tipperary is that a second A&E is needed to alleviate the pressure in Limerick. 

In 2009, the Mid West hospital reconfiguration saw A&Es close in Nenagh, Ennis and St John’s Hospital in Limerick. Of course, the people of Tipperary are hoping that it will be Nenagh’s A&E that’s reopened and though there is no guarantee in that happening, many of the candidates have it down at the top of their list of priorities to fulfil if given the public’s number one vote.

Although possibly not as drastic, the south has its own share of hospital-related issues. Just over a month ago now healthcare workers took part in a lunchtime protest outside of  Tipperary University Hospital in Clonmel.   

Their main concern being the HSE’s failure to fill thousands of frontline health posts. 

Meanwhile, the closure of St Brigid’s Hospital in Carrick-on-Suir remains an ongoing issue.