News that major hospital developments in Dublin and Mullingar could be delayed as a result of an instruction by Minister for Health Mary Harney to the Health Service Executive (HSE) was met with disappointment and anger yesterday.
The instruction to the HSE that it should not go ahead with the development of new facilities at the Longford/Westmeath General Hospital in Mullingar pending an audit to examine the scope for minimising staff and running costs was described as shocking by Westmeath Labour TD Willie Penrose.
He said people would take to the streets in protest as locals had been waiting more than eight years for the new facilities.
The HSE Midland Area said design work on the project was continuing, and it hoped the project would be complete by late 2006 or early 2007. The audit requested would take place in tandem with the design work.
The Irish Times reported yesterday that Ms Harney also instructed the HSE not to proceed with plans to tender for the redevelopment of the Mater hospital, which will include a new children's hospital to replace Temple Street, without specific sanction from her department.
Patients Together described this as extremely disappointing. It said the project had been approved back in 1999.
The Department of Health said the project was progressing through pre-tender stages of final design. The instruction to the HSEwas "quite normal for a project of this scale and size".