Health of the nation remains a local issue

Special Correspondent Michael Clifford says that all Portlaoise Hospital needed to get preferential treatment was to have been to be located in the Taoiseach’s constituency.

In 2003, when I visited the Midland Regional Hospital on a few occasions, the place was a kip. It looked to be on the point of crumbling, like something that had been left behind since the 1970s.

Nearly eight years later, I had cause to visit again. Driving through the main entrance I did a double take. A bright shining building, crafted by some lovely architecture, loomed before me. Inside, it was airy and modern, a fitting location for the accommodating staff, and decades away from what it had been on my previous visit. The healthcare, according to those who knew it at the time, was excellent in there.