GOVERNMENT TDs from South Tipperary were this weekend called upon to support the retention of acute hospital services at South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel as campaigners handed over a petition with 70,000 signatures opposing any removal of services.
Save Our Acute Hospital Services Committee chairman Cllr Séamus Healy warned the Health Service Executive (HSE) will face massive opposition from the public if it proceeds with its plan to transfer acute services from South Tipperary General Hospital to Waterford and Kilkenny.
“The Save Our Acute Hospital Services Committee and the people of South Tipperary will do whatever is necessary and go wherever is needed to stop this destruction of our acute hospital services, including people power, the legal process and the political process,” he said. “It’s time for the South Tipperary Oireachtas members to stand up and be counted and make sure that the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, and the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, intervene to retain the acute hospital services at South Tipperary General Hospital.”
A former independent TD for South Tipperary, Cllr Healy said the people of the area will demand nothing less than unambiguous support, particularly from local Government TDs Martin Mansergh and Mattie McGrath, for retention of services at the hospital. Cllr Healy was speaking after handing over a petition with 70,000 signatures to Mr Mansergh, Mr McGrath and fellow South Tipperary Oireachtas members Fine Gael TD Tom Hayes and Labour Senator Phil Prendergast at the hospital on Saturday.
Cllr Healy pointed out €45 million has been invested in the hospital in recent years including the provision of a new emergency department, a new general surgical unit, and day and endoscopy units, while six new medical consultants have been appointed.
The hospital, formerly St Joseph’s County Medical and Maternity Hospital, had been upgraded, with the transfer of all surgical procedures from Our Lady’s Hospital in Cashel and renamed South Tipperary General Hospital. It was officially opened by Ms Harney in 2008.
South Tipperary senior physician Dr Paud O’Regan said that “reconfiguration” was “another word for the centralisation of acute services” and warned the closure of the emergency department would deprive many patients of the “golden hour” in which their lives could be saved.