Patients will die over HSE’s cost-cutting, warns doctor

PATIENTS in the north-east will die because the Health Service Executive will continue to cut back on services even if plans to develop a new regional hospital are shelved, a doctor warned yesterday.

Dr Illona Duffy, a GP in Monaghan, said she was not surprised when Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said there was no money to build a regional hospital in the area after a political row broke out over its location.

“We have always said it was unlikely the hospital would ever be built but the problem is services continue to be withdrawn,” said Dr Duffy who said saving money seemed to be the HSE’s ultimate aim.