Dreams over the Silvermines, not reality, contends Noonan
THE controversy surrounding the recent publication of a government commissioned report on hospitals has led to deputy Michael Noonan expressing doubts that the minister will deliver for Limerick.
The former Minister for Health says that while it is easy to agree with the report’s objective of delivering a major overhaul of the service in this region,
it is not so easy to be convinced that in these times of economic crisis, the Minister for Health will produce 300 million euro to implement a programme to facilitate a new workload at Limerick’s Regional Hospital.
He says that given that it is not long since the minister reneged on a promise to vaccinate 12-year-old girls against cervical cancer, it is hardly credible that she will now deliver on a promise to the people of Limerick, Nenagh and Ennis.
“The report lists the necessary services, including an emergency operating theatre in Dooradoyle, of which there is no sign, the extension of the ambulance service and the deployment of advanced paramedics to the region, and, according to the report, this service is underway – well, if the ambulances have been ordered, they certainly haven’t been delivered, added to which the human resources situation involving ambulance drivers is not yet resolved”. The deputy also observes that planning permission for a new critical care block in Dooradoyle has not yet been applied for, although this is an essential component of the reconfiguration.
“Expansion of radiology services in St John’s Hospital and in Ennis and Nenagh, as well as new facilities and a new theatre block in Nenagh, these are dreams over the Silvermines – not reality,” he contends.
Warning that the Minister for Health needs to put new facilities in place before she closes the old ones, and that by so doing people would buy into them as they would enhance patient safety and produce better clinical outputs, Deputy Noonan concludes: “The reality is nobody believes that the Minister will or can deliver”.
