Calls for abolition of HSE in services dispute
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”.
