A group which has been campaigning for several years for the retention of a full range of services at Monaghan General Hospital is considering fielding up to six candidates in next June's local elections.
Two of the candidates have already declared they are likely to or will actually stand. They include Monaghan GP Dr Illona Duffy who disclosed to The Irish Times yesterday that she would probably stand on behalf of the Monaghan Hospital Community Alliance.
Mr Brendan Casey, a district nurse employed by the North Eastern Health Board and a member of the alliance, has already declared he will run in the Clones electoral area.
The alliance will discuss the fielding of other candidates at a meeting next Thursday night.
The news, coming one day after the publication of the Hanly report which set out a blueprint for how hospital services should be reorganised and which will result in some local hospitals losing full accident and emergency and maternity services, will be a worrying development for the Government.
It is an indication that other communities where services at local hospitals are threatened may also put forward candidates to battle it out for seats with Fianna Fáil and other large parties in the forthcoming local elections.
At the publication of the Hanly report, the Health Minister, Mr Martin, acknowledged this was a possibility.
Dr Duffy said yesterday that while Mr Martin said no hospitals would be downgraded, she did not accept this.
"It's not going to provide better care for patients if they can't access services," she said.
"All local hospitals will end up with long-stay patients. Advanced nursing homes is all they will be," she added.
"It will cause a revolt by doctors in rural areas. I think there will be a huge surge in medical personnel and medical-related personnel running in the next local elections. People are saying they would be willing to run."
Her decision to stand, she said, would be to get a 24-hour casualty service as well as other services restored to Monaghan hospital.
The hospital was at the centre of controversy late last year when it refused to allow a woman in an advanced stage of labour to give birth at the hospital. Maternity services had been controversially suspended at the hospital the previous year and the young woman, Ms Denise Livingstone, was sent by ambulance in the middle of the night to Cavan General Hospital.
En route she gave birth to a baby girl who died shortly after they arrived in Cavan. A subsequent independent inquiry found she should not have been transferred.
Mr Martin subsequently ordered a full report from former civil servant Mr Kevin Bonner on how services should be delivered in future at Monaghan hospital. He found there was a need for an emergency service between 8 a.m. and midnight and that a midwife-led maternity service should be restored.
Yesterday the North Eastern Health Board confirmed it has set up a steering group to oversee the implementation of the Bonner report. It will be chaired by Mr Tadhg O'Brien, assistant CEO of Acute Hospital Services with the health board.