Calls for abolition of HSE in services dispute

COUNCILLORS in Louth have called for the abolition of the HSE and its executive over the forthcoming transfer of cancer services from Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda to Dublin’s Beaumont hospital.

During the debate, a Fianna Fáil councillor and former chairman of the North Eastern Health Board claimed medical professionals are making decisions on where services are provided, “whether they are right or not”. Cllr Declan Breathnach also clicked his fingers together to illustrate what he believed is the influence over those decisions Health Minister Mary Harney has.

The debate came after Labour councillor Ged Nash called for the council to reject the decision to remove the services from the Dochas centre at the hospital. In a letter read during the debate, written by consultant breast surgeon Finbar Lennon, who works at the unit, said the service “delivered by this unit in recent years is excellent”. Mr Lennon, a former medical advisor to the defunct North Eastern Health Board, said “in 2007 over 2,500 patients were seen and 110 new breast cancer cases were diagnosed and treated”.

Mr Nash said “this unit treats more patients than some of the proposed centres of excellence” and “its imminent closure” means patients from across the northeast “will also have to be treated in Beaumont hospital where its unit is overstretched as it is”.

Referring to reports in the press a review may be taken of some cancer cases in Our Lady of Lourdes he said: “Brendan Drumm and his whole team need to be stood down.”

This was supported by Independent councillor Ken O’Heiligh who said the HSE “should be abolished and replaced with an accountable and democratic forum”.