Hospital campaigners criticise report into pensioner’s death

LAST week’s report into the death of pensioner Pat Joe Walsh at Monaghan General Hospital has been dismissed as ‘a mishmash of prejudice and opinion’ by campaigners.

The comments follow criticism by Mr Walsh’s family of staff at the hospital.

The official report investigated the circumstances surrounding the death of 76-year-old Mr Walsh, who bled to death on October 14 last year after doctors at Monaghan Hospital were unable to treat him. The report found that the death was avoidable and recommended the immediate suspension of acute in-patient services at the hospital.

Monaghan Alliance chairman Peadar Mahon said the report ignored fundamental problems in the health system. “This report is full of red herrings,” he said. “The reality is that, if emergency surgery had not been withdrawn from Monaghan General Hospital, Pat Joe Walsh’s is a life that might have been saved.

“One of the questions we want an answer to is ‘why, when the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has been to the forefront in trying to close Ireland’s smaller hospitals, they were asked to nominate someone to write this report?’ Asking RCSI to do this was tantamount to asking a fox to audit the chicken coop.”

The report, published last week, found that some of the events on the morning that Mr Walsh died were ‘surprising and barely credible’. The refusal of surgeons in Drogheda and Cavan hospital to accept Mr Walsh was unacceptable.

TD Paudge Connolly said the report is “an insult to the life of Pat Joe Walsh”.

A protest rally is planned in Monaghan tomorrow night.