“The HSE and Fianna Fáil must be honest with the people of Erris regarding the future of Belmullet Hospital,” according to Sinn Fein councillor Rose Conway-Walsh. “I categorically refute the claim by the HSE that Belmullet Hospital is not in crisis. Plans to close a significant number of the 40 beds in the hospital and failure to provide adequate staff to run the hospital to its full capacity is a crisis. While the whole hospital will not be closing at this time surely a downgrading of services will make it easier to close in the future,” she added.
“The people of Erris must not be lulled into a false sense of security by those who in the past have taken away our A&E services, maternity services, and half of our ambulance services,” she added.
During a meeting with the local health manager on Friday when more than 3,500 signatures were handed into the HSE Cllr Conway-Walsh stressed the “economic nonsense” of accommodating patients who did not need acute medical care in Mayo General Hospital when they could be cared for in their own community hospital at a lower cost. “I also stressed the economic folly of paying overtime when temporary staff could be engaged at a lesser rate.”
The Erris councillor has called on the county’s Fianna Fáil TDs to “either sort this out or be up front with the people and tell them what the situation is”.
“It is not good enough to hide behind the bureaucracy of the institution they created, they must use their position within government to deliver for the people of Erris and Mayo. We don’t want platitudes, we don’t want empathy, and we don’t want nonsense, we want action now. If they want to make savings in the health service they need to get rid of all the positions in the Department of Health that carry out no function whatsoever in the delivery of health care.”
