Mother of campaign group leader is discharged

ONE of the last patients to be discharged from Monaghan General Hospital’s acute surgical ward at the weekend was the elderly mother of the head of the group campaigning against the continual downgrading of the hospital.

Monaghan Community Alliance chair, Peadar McMahon, whose 91-year old mother recently underwent emergency surgery at the hospital, has warned that more people would die needlessly because of the removal of the round-the-clock service.

“You cannot have emergency medicine without emergency surgery. Patients needing emergency surgery will have to be transferred to other acute hospitals, and in some cases that may be too late,” he warned.

“We reckon that around 14,000 people will be outside of the golden hour from reaching hospital for emergency surgery.

“If our emergency medicine goes, they will outside of that precious lifesaving timeframe for all emergencies.”

Although the hospital’s acute surgical ward officially closed on Saturday, all of the patients still requiring medical care were transferred to other acute hospitals the previous day.

The group, who staged a mock funeral outside Leinster House in Dublin on Saturday, has claimed more than 17 people have died needlessly since the hospital lost full accident and emergency (A&E) service.

Last October, Patrick Joe Walsh, a 70-year-old widower and retired farmer from Carrickmacross, died from a bleeding ulcer while hospital staff waited anxiously for a phone call from any one of three other hospitals they had contacted to look for a surgical bed for him.

Staff would have carried out surgery themselves but it had gone past 5pm, the cut-off point past which their theatre nurses are not insured to work.

The elderly man’s death is now the focus of a major public inquiry.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) said the need for the reorganisation of acute surgical services in Cavan/Monaghan was based on the need for patient safety, good clinical care and service to the community.

The HSE said day-care surgery would continue to be performed in Monaghan General Hospital and a consultant surgeon would be present in the hospital on weekdays.

Mr McMahon said he could not understand the logic of closing a further 26 beds in Monaghan Hospital when other acute hospitals in Cavan, Drogheda and Dublin cannot cope with existing demands.

“The closure also means that patients will have to be transferred by car or ambulance to Cavan, which is over 30 miles away, or Drogheda which is over 50 miles away,” he said.

Mr McMahon said the campaign group that was formed in May 2002 would not give up their fight to stop the downgrading of the hospital. “We will never consent to an acceptable mortality rate for Monaghan,” he insisted.