Ó Caoláin challenges health minister
Speaking in a Dáil debate on Health on Tuesday, Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin challenged the Minister for Health and Children, Mícheál Martin, on the closure of maternity services at Monaghan General Hospital.
``For the past three months I have been engaged almost full time in a struggle to save the Maternity Services at Monaghan General Hospital,'' said Ó Caoláin. ``That campaign reached its height in the month of February and necessitated my absence from the Dáil for most of that month.
``I little suspected when I was elected TD for Cavan/Monaghan that such a struggle would be necessary. The unprecedented resources in the hands of the government made it almost unthinkable that we should return to the days of closures and cutbacks. Yet in the Year 2001 we have seen the closure of maternity services at Monaghan General Hospital despite widespread opposition from patients, staff and the citizens of the County.
``We had a massive public campaign, including a rally organised by the County Council and almost 35,000 people signed a petition to retain the service. And still the closure went ahead. The minister has said and will say that the responsibility lies with the Health Board, with Comhairle na nOspidéal and with the consultant representative bodies.
``But minister, in the end the buck must stop somewhere and it stops with you. You have a democratically mandated responsibility for the health services.
``The minister must ensure that those services are both equitable and efficient. The motion lists this government's catalogue of failure on a State-wide level. At a County level I and 35,000 others can testify to the neglect of a key service at our hospital and its callous closure at the behest of unaccountable health service bureaucrats while the Minister washed his hands. I no longer have confidence in the Health Board system of delivery of health care in the acute services sector. I have no confidence either in the willingness of this government to provide the root and branch reform of the health services which is required to end the two-tier system we see today.
``The closure of maternity services at Monaghan and Dundalk is a shameful episode and the people of Counties Monaghan and Louth will not forget it. Nor will we give up the fight to restore and upgrade the services which have been so unjustly taken from us.''
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