THE Mid-West Hospital Campaign (MWHC) has announced that it will be standing a candidate in the next General Election.
Activist Melanie Sheehan Cleary has been selected by the campaign group to stand in the Limerick City constituency.
The campaign is still considering its options on whether to stand candidates in the Clare and Tipperary constituencies.
Melanie Sheehan Cleary is a mother of six, including the late Eve Cleary (21) who passed away in 2019 just hours after she was discharged from University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
Earlier this year, Eve’s family settled a High Court action over her death with the HSE and UHL. As part of the settlement, the family got a formal apology from UHL.
Speaking after her selection by the campaign, Ms Sheehan Cleary said: “I was never political or active in this way before Eve died. I thought that her death would be the catalyst for change, but nothing happened afterwards. Instead, more families have had to suffer as we did.”
“Eve spent 17 hours on a trolley in UHL’s emergency department after she hurt herself slipping and falling on a footpath. A few hours after she was eventually admitted to a ward, she was discharged and told to go home and rest. Less than four hours later, she suffered a cardiac arrest caused by a blood clot that had travelled into her lung. Eve was just 21.”
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the Garryowen native maintains, have committed to a path which in effect means the undermining of the health system. She takes the view that it would take a lot of effort to force them into a U-turn, while Sinn Féin, she claims, seem committed to not rocking the boat.
“We say that the evidence is overwhelming for the urgent need to restore emergency services in the Mid West. We do not accept that there is any clinical argument that justifies the piling up of people on trolleys in UHL and any further delay will cost lives.”
Spokesperson for MWHC in Limerick, Charlotte Keane pointed out that the group warned in their February 2020 protest that they would come to Dublin if they didn’t re-open the emergency departments closed at St John’s, Ennis, and Nenagh hospitals in 2009 – “this is us following up on that pledge.”
