It was one of the trending topics on social media over the weekend as ambulances queued for hours outside the A&E Department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and parents were asked to bring sick children to their cars to sleep.
But just 30 or so people braved the sub-zero temperatures yesterday to protest at the HSE’s plans to transfer A&E patients from Navan to Drogheda against the advice of senior doctors and without providing any extra facilities.
Public representatives in attendance included Deputies Ged Nash, Imelda Munster and Ruairí Ó Murchú, Independent Councillor Paddy Mc Quillan and Mayor of Drogheda, Cllr. Michelle Hall and Trade Union representatives.
The protest organiser, Aontú Representative Michael O’Dowd, thanked everyone for turning up on such a cold winter’s day to deliver a message to the HSE on behalf of the people of Drogheda.
“Frankly People have had enough of the absolute disaster that is unfolding in A&Es across the northeast” he said.”The stress Our lady of Lourdes A&E is under was evident to all last week. We had a letter from 17 brave consultants indicating their fears that somebody will die as a result of closing Navan and transferring patients here. That letter was a wakeup call to us all” he said.
“Our message today is first of all to the nurses, doctors and ambulance service are under tremendous pressure, we value your service and we thank you.
But to the HSE our message is clear; listen to the consultants, listen to the parents of sick children, listen to the sick and vulnerable who cannot be here today, listen to the citizens of this town and invest in our front-line services before it is too late for many people.
Deputy Ged Nash said he had more faith and confidence in Santa Claus than in Minister Donnelly.
“If he will not listen to the people of Louth and Meath, he must listen to the genuine evidence-based concerns spelt out in black and white to him by the 17 consultants who wrote to him last week.
“The Minister must step back from this and halt his plans to load more patients into the Lourdes with not a single extra bed being made available to absorb the extra pressure.”
Deputy Imelda Munster said: “It doesn’t get more serious when the consultant body of OLOL put pen to paper and write to Minister Donnelly telling him if ambulance bypass protocol goes ahead patients may die.
Minister needs to listen to medical professionals, not proceed with this new protocol and instead needs to resource both Navan and Drogheda hospitals to make them safe. He appears to allow the HSE to run rings around him. At the end of the day the buck stops with him-he is the Minister in charge.”
Mayor of Drogheda, Councillor Michelle Hall said: “We are here today to add our voices to front line workers – consultants, paramedics, nurses and care workers who are working under huge stress in our health system.
“They know that putting more pressure on the Emergency Department here in our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is not good for patients, and they have written to the HSE to highlight the belief that any further ambulance protocols from Navan ED to Drogheda will actually put more lives at risk.
“I am vice chair of the HSE Regional Health Forum and I’ve been advocating for more student courses since 2019. I’ve been told by HSE Managers that expansion of college courses won’t solve the short-term issue.
“If they had acted on it in 2019, we’d have nurses graduating in 2023 and more paramedics graduating this year. As it is we have Drogheda Institute of Education running an amazing Pre-Nursing course with only a fraction of graduates going on to college in Ireland. Instead they head to the UK where they get bursaries, and accommodation packages.
“Ireland should be grabbing anyone who wants to be a nurse especially after committing to a year’s intense study. We are spending millions on recruitment outside of Ireland.”
