Nenagh councillor wants HSE boss to appear before forum to answer questions on hospital

A Tipperary councillor wants the new chief of the HSE to attend the next meeting of the HSE West Forum.

Cllr Seamus Morris made his call to Bernard Gloster following the fire at Wexford Hospital.

He wants Mr Gloster to outline his plans for the Mid-West, where there is only one ED serving up to 400,000 people.

Cllr Morris further wants the new CEO to explain how or who decided to go ahead with the closures of Nenagh, Ennis, and St Johns 24-hour EDs, despite never having the promised 600 emergency beds in place.

“As the required number has still not been achieved in the region could he explain why the region has not the required number of beds in the region 13 years after reconfiguration and would he commit to reopening the 24-hour EDs in Nenagh, Ennis, and St John's as requested by this forum

Cllr Morris also wants an explanation from Shannondoc for the collapse of services over Christmas over the apparent lack of staff, and why it took days to resolve and why adequate plans were not put in place beforehand.

The Mid West Hospital Campaign has written to the CEO of Shannondoc, Peter O’Brien, and they would like him to respond to them through this forum, said Cllr Morris.

He also wants to know why, under the strict criteria of who can be brought to the MAUs by ambulances only two people were able to be brought to Nenagh Hospital, and why the MAU is not open after 4pm due to a lack of diagnostics and no labs or diagnostics at the weekend.

Cllr Morris also wants the HSE West Forum to explain why UHL group did not get one extra bed in the winter plan despite having the most consistently worse trolley numbers.

“What reasons were given and what efforts were made to change this decision?” he has asked.