Anger 'ready to burst' over Monaghan hospital
They have called instead for an independent inquiry by an external investigator and warned that public anger in the area over the latest tragedy was now barely containable.
The latest victim, 70-year-old Patrick Walsh from Carrickmacross, died at Monaghan General in the early hours of Friday morning after he was denied routine surgery for a bleeding ulcer because cutbacks meant theatre nurses were only insured to work up to 5pm.
Staff kept him alive with blood transfusions for hours while they contacted hospitals in Cavan, Drogheda and Dublin but none of those hospitals had a surgical bed free to take him.
Health Services Action Group chairman Dr John Barton described the situation as "deplorable" and said there was no question but that Mr Walsh could have been successfully treated in Monaghan.
"You had staff more than capable of looking after him. But because the health authorities say there are too many hospitals in the North East, people in Monaghan have to suffer. It's absolutely scandalous."
Dr Barton, a consultant cardiologist based at Portiuncula Hospital in Co Galway, said he and other doctors in smaller hospitals frequently had to ring around hospitals in other parts of the country hoping to find beds for seriously ill patients who would be better off treated locally.
"All this is done on the basis of economics and efficiencies," he said. "The people doing this actually forget about people."
Campaign group, Monaghan Hospital Community Alliance, heard of Mr Walsh's death shortly before they were due to meet Taoiseach Bertie Ahern last Friday night to update him on their long-running concerns about the hospital.
Alliance chairman Peadar McMahon said Mr Ahern had assured him of his personal attention and told the group to deal directly with his department but while this was "positive" he said: "We have been made promises before."
The group had little confidence in an inquiry ordered by the Health Service Executive (HSE) over the weekend. "HSE policy will dictate the outcome of the inquiry. It will ask did medical staff adhere to policy and it will find that this was the case. It's the policy of running down Monaghan General that needs to be looked at."
Mr McMahon said feelings were running high in Monaghan where Mr Walsh, a widower and father of one, was buried yesterday. "There is awful pent up anger ready to burst and people are telling us they want more militant action. We are asking people to allow a few weeks to see what response we get from the Taoiseach's Department."
Why did Patrick Walsh die?
He needed surgery to stop an ulcer bleeding but no surgical bed could be found for him in the hospitals contacted.
The hospital is geared towards carrying out elective surgeries that are routine by nature and can be scheduled in advance so its theatre nurses are only rostered to work up to 5pm.
The hospital has been on a rollercoaster ride with regard to the level of services provided and funded there for the past 20 years. Services were withdrawn in the 1980s and restored somewhat in the 1990s. Plans to upgrade the hospital and expand services were made in the late 1990s but a further change of direction came in the early 2000s.
The first sign of trouble in recent times came with the withdrawal of maternity services in February 2001. The hospital was then taken off call for emergencies in mid-2002. It also lost specialist, though relatively routine, surgical duties.
No, they were expected to use neighbouring Cavan General Hospital which retained its services.
Cavan General suffered from the loss of two out of three of its permanent general surgeons who were suspended in a protracted personal dispute and it struggled trying to fill their positions on a temporary basis. Further problems arose when the health authorities made a highly critical assessment and withdrew the surgical unit's status as a training facility for junior doctors.
The Department of Health commissioned the Hanly Report on reform of the health services nationally and it says smaller hospitals, such as Monaghan, should be reduced to basically large health clinics and minor surgery units with all the key specialities and emergency services concentrated in a limited number of large regional hospitals. That is the document dictating hospital funding and development policy and the Government is slow to depart from it.
The Health Service Executive has ordered a report into Mr Walsh's death. It is expected to find that staff at Monaghan General did all they could given the restrictions they were under. Campaigners hope it will be critical of the fact that staff were under restrictions in the first place.
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