Navan hospital is worth fighting for

Dear sir - The Friends of Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan are appalled at the decision to end elective and acute surgical services at Our Lady’s Hospital. The Friends of Our Lady’s Hospital was founded in 1982, in an era when the Health Board had no funding to provide medical equipment for the hospital. In the 28 years since then, there has been widespread support across Meath for our hospital in Navan. This is proven by the support the Friends obtained over the years for their fundraising efforts. The Friends are acutely aware of the importance of Our Lady’s Hospital to all the people of Co Meath. The amounts they have raised come close to £2 million. The Friends, through fundraising, put £157,000 worth of equipment into the new Medical Admissions Unit (MAU) at the hospital. Other equipment installed in recent times at the hospital, thanks to funds donated to the Friends, includes the Dexa Scanner and Ultra Sound technology. The patients themselves have contributed to the fundraising which has spanned the Celtic Tiger period and all other eras in the Irish economy since 1982. Yet, despite all the best efforts to keep Our Lady’s Hospital open, it seems now that the HSE is determined that it will no longer function as an acute hospital. Many people in Co Meath owe their lives to the efforts of the excellent medical staff in Our Lady’s Hospital. I have encountered intense anger at this decision to end elective and acute surgical services there. The decision also, quite unfairly, casts a negative reflection on our excellent surgeons and physicians at Navan hospital. The worst part of this is that the HSE spindoctor, Dr Dominic O Brannagain, clinical director, Louth/Meath Hospital Group, would have us believe that all this is for the benefit of patients. Try telling that to anybody who has been returned to full health by the quality of treatment they received in Our Lady’s Hospital. The HSE has based its decision on a number of cases with complications which caused them to question the standard of surgery to justify the closure of elective and acute surgical services. Even if this were correct and this is being challenged, I am sure there are very few hospitals in Ireland which would not have had similar cases where complications arose. All hospital laboratories are required regularly to obtain internationally recognised accreditation. I understand that Our Lady’s Hospital has that full accredition. It was the first hospital in the region to obtain it. The laboratory is reinspected on a yearly basis and has passed the 2008 and 2009 inspections. Also, the general theatre and endoscopic unit have passed inspections in recent years. Patients from Meath requiring surgery are being transferred to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, a hospital which is overcrowded and whose staff is overworked. I would ask whether we can have an assurance that the general theatres and laboratory accreditation there meet the same standards as Our Lady’s Hospital. The standard of hygiene at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, must also be questioned. Already the orthopaedic unit in Navan has been downgraded from its former position as one of the top regional centres for these services. This dates back to the removal of emergency orthopaedic surgery from Our Lady’s Hospital. The Friends are concerned about the orthopaedic unit, particularly as we are told the unit is to close for three months. We would require assurances from the minister that the unit will in fact reopen in January and that it is not set for closure. The Friends of Our Lady’s Hospital urges the Committee which is campaigning to save our hospital to demand immediate restoration of elective surgery there. Unless we obtain that, we will have allowed Our Lady’s Hospital to close. Future generations will ask “why was that allowed to happen”. If elective surgery is not restored, anaesthetic services will be endangered and acute medicine cannot function without anaesthesia. Therefore, acute medical services are at risk. The Friends also urges all those people who supported their fundraising over the years to come out and support the demonstration organised by the Committee to Save Our Lady’s Hospital on Saturday, 30th October. Our hospital is so important to us that it is worth fighting for. However, in our opinion, the demonstration alone will not be enough to save it. It will also require all those people who have supported and who value the hospital so much to withhold their support at the next election from the political parites who have presided over this butchery of our health services in Co Meath. Yours, Derry Fitzgerald, chairman, Friends of Our Lady’s Hospital.