Save Navan Hospital Campaign Cathaoirleach Peadar Tóibín TD has received communication from one of the Co-leads of the Review into the Future of Navan Hospital A&E Liam Woods who has stated that they refuse to meet with the Save Navan Hospital Campaign as part of their Review.
He told Meath Live, “Minister Stephen Donnelly clearly stated 2 months in the Dáil that before any decision was made on our A&E that there would be meaningful discussions and meaningful engagement which would include Elected Reps and Community Stakeholders. As Cathaoirleach of the Save Navan Hospital Campaign, I have communicated with the offices of Mike O’Connor and Liam Woods who are the Co-leads of this review. Only Liam Woods responded. He indicated that the Review team would not meet with me as an elected representative or with the Save Navan Hospital Campaign due to the tight timelines and the need to deliver the Review”.
Peadar Tóibín TD not taking this review process lying down. There will be a meeting this Tuesday at 8.00 pm in the Newgrange Hotel, Navan.
“This appears to be another of example of the HSE ignoring the words of the Minister. The Minister has through this period been humiliated by the HSE. I have written to the Minister to demand input from Community Stakeholders in Meath in this process.
“I have also emailed Liam Woods to ask him what demographic analysis the Review will be carrying out. What health care demand-side research will the Review carry out? What information will be sought in terms of forecasts for the GPs per citizen ratio in Meath and Louth and the future supply of GPs to the region?
What research into the future behaviour of Covid and its impacts on demand will be carried out. What research will be done in terms of the public transport links that exist between towns and villages in Meath to Drogheda Hospital and the cost of fuel and private transport and how that will affect people from lower socio-economic backgrounds living in Meath?
We need also to know the cost and the delivery timescale of proposed extra resources to Drogheda that would be needed to make up for the loss of Navan A&E. As of yet the Save Navan Hospital Campaign have not received any response to these questions from Liam Woods”.
“The Save Navan Hospital Campaign will have an important meeting in the Newgrange Hotel, Navan at 8 pm tomorrow to focus on the next steps the campaign will take. We have invited Minister Helene McEntee, Minister Damien English, Minister Thomas Byrne and Senator Shane Cassells to attend tomorrow night’s meeting so that they can explain what they are doing to change the terms of reference in the Review so that it includes the development of the A&E in Navan. We have collected 15,000 petition names in support of our A&E and we will be presenting them to the Minister this week.
We will also ramp up campaign activities and we will look at all peaceful and legal direct action steps we can take to show the government that we mean business to protect our A&E. We are also reaching out to other hospital campaigns and patient advocacy groups in order to build a coalition of citizens who will fight for Health Care investment and reform at a time of Health Care provision crisis.“
