The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, must intervene to clarify the situation of Peamount Hospital, a protest outside the Dáil was told yesterday.
About 100 people travelled from the north Co Kildare and west Co Dublin region for yesterday's protest at the apparent dismantling of services at the hospital. The hospital, in Newcastle, Co Dublin, specialises in chest and lung treatment, particularly the treatment of TB.
Yesterday's protest followed the move by the hospital's board of management to make its medical director, Prof Luke Clancy, redundant earlier this month.
A full hearing into the circumstances surrounding Prof Clancy's redundancy is due to be heard at the High Court on Tuesday.
Last year the board decided to move away from chest medicine and redevelop the hospital as a facility for rehabilitation and independent living. It followed a review of the hospital commissioned from consultants Prospectus.
Among those who travelled to yesterday's protest was Ms Annie Timmins (83), from Rathcoole, Co Dublin, who said the hospital was "vital to people in the whole area".
Mr Derek Keating, Independent councillor in Lucan, said that with a rapidly growing population in the region, services at Peamount "should be expanded, if anything, not reduced".
"This loss of services is of major concern. A lot of people may see this is as a local issue but it has implications for the whole country," he added.
Homelessness campaigner, Ms Alice Leahy, said it was an indication of the way decisions were increasingly being taken in the health service "by unaccountable bureaucrats".
Mr Paul Gogarty, Green Party TD, Dublin Mid-West, said decisions to "downgrade" hospital services could not be allowed to be taken by boards of management without consultation. "The Minister must intervene immediately. He has not exactly been pro-active on this issue." Mr Gogarty has in the Dáil called for the resignation of the hospital's chief executive, Mr Robert Mullen.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said the Minister was "aware of the situation at Peamount" and the Department was monitoring it.
