Monaghan transfer policy ‘unworkable’

HOSPITAL consultants say a Health Service Executive (HSE) directive that all patients at Monaghan General Hospital needing emergency surgery must be transferred immediately to Cavan General Hospital is unworkable.

Since the death of retired farmer Patrick Joe Walsh, 76, almost a year ago, the HSE has instructed that all requests for transfer from Monaghan to Cavan must be granted and processed immediately without question.

An independent report into Mr Walsh’s death in Monaghan almost a year ago found that his death was avoidable and recommended that acute in-patient services at the hospital be suspended immediately.