Campaigners are staging protests today against cuts at Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan and the closure of a residential section of Wicklow District Hospital.
The Save Navan Hospital Campaign has called on the residents of Trim to create an enormous letter ‘H’ in the grounds of Trim Castle.
Peadar Toibin, campaign chairman, said the stunt would reveal the need for a properly functioning hospital in the country.
“We want to highlight the centrality of Our Lady’s Hospital Navan in the welfare of all the people of Meath,” said Mr Tobin, who is the deputy mayor of Navan. “We oppose strongly these dangerous and haphazard cuts that the HSE and this government are inflicting. Tens of thousands of people from the Trim area use Navan Hospital and we will give these people a chance to voice their opposition.”
He added that a mass rally would be held in Navan on October 30th.
A protest is also being held in Wicklow today over the closure of the residential section of Wicklow District Hospital.
The patients at the hospital are to be transferred to St Colman’s Hospital in Rathdrum.
Mandie Delahunt, spokeswoman for the Save Wicklow Hospital campaign, claimed the move was a way for the HSE to cut back on care services in the region and that the closure would be a “death sentence” for the facility’s 20 long-stay elderly patients.
On Thursday, a HSE spokeswoman announced the unit would close due to “significant physical infrastructural concerns”, following a fire audit of the building, and denied the move was connected to a reconfiguration of services.
Labour Party TD Liz McManus said the move was “outrageous”, and she called on the HSE to withdraw the decision and to carry out work to bring the building up to standard. Last Saturday, several thousand people gathered in Wicklow town to protest against any move to downgrade or close the unit.