Web of deceit woven by HSE on hospital

Dear sir - I continue to watch with anger and sadness the saga surrounding the downgrading of Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan. I was associated with this centre of care and compassion for many years. We all know people who have had their lives and their quality of life extended due to the existence of this hospital. In recent years we have heard a lot of jargon about 'centres of excellence’. We were promised one by this government, however, due to the economic downturn this will not now happen. In health care terms, how do you define a centre of excellence? As I have said there are many people who are alive today or who’s relatives are alive today because of Navan hospital’s existence. Their evidence would suggest to me that our hospital in Navan is an excellent centre. What is the evidence provided by the HSE to support the termination of any surgical procedures in this hospital? They say there has been a 'cluster’ of cases of poor outcomes, however, they are not a liberty to discuss any of them. This conspiracy, this web of deceit that has been woven by the HSE with the conivance of some medical professionals, to close not only Our Lady’s but many other fine hospitals around the country should be exposed. If the gardai wanted to close down a noisy rowdy establishment, they would have to convince a judge with hard evidence. If the HSE wanted to close a dirty restaurant they would have to produce the evidence. It is quite incredible that the HSE can issue an order at the drop of a hat to close a state of the art life saving surgical department in a hospital without any evidence at all. Who are the people making the case for the HSE? Some of them are doctors and nurses, people who started out with high ideals and a desire to enhance and preserve human life, people who live among us in our community. What caused them to lose sight of these ideals, why have they lost the compassion and the integrity of their professions?. They ascend the HSE promotion ladder to the eighty, to one hundred thousand plus euro jobs with all the trappings of travel and subsistence payments and then relax with a substantial pension. Have they gone so far up that they have lost sight of the reality of why they were there in the first place. Unfortunately the answer seems to be greed and personal advancement. The following is short extract from the Hippocratic Oath: “I will remain free of all intentional injustice and mischief”. If any of these health care professionals involved in this deceit have a remnant of conscience they should take a look in the mirror, I believe it will not make pleasant viewing. Any one who has or is working for the HSE will tell you about the mountains of administration that have been created by the development of new strategies, projects and policy that create unmanageable burdens for staff working at the sharp end of patient care. Then there is the launches of these new policies and the training associated with them, this usually took place in a nice four star hotel with an excellent menu. If they wish to talk about poor patient outcome, they should measure it against the colossal investment wasted on all of this nonsense. Ask any nurse or hospital doctor they feel totally exasperated at the scandalous waste of public money on all of these issues. The HSE along with their political masters should hang their heads in shame for the way they have betrayed the trust placed in them by the people who pay their salaries. Mary Harney and her political colleagues in government seem to be hell bent on handing over Irelands health care to the private sector. This will require the whole population to have expensive health insurance. Whilst they have been pursuing this policy they have also allowed their friends in banking and property development to create an impoverished population, who will do well to hold onto their homes and feed their families never mind paying for private health care on top of it all. (Name and address with editor)