Call to secure future of Bantry A&E

THE people of Bantry should be given the same commitment to safeguard their hospital’s A&E services that has been given to the people of Tralee.

That’s the view of a former mayor of Co Cork, Councillor John O’Shea who said the Team Work report – which suggests closing all A&Es in Cork and centralising the service in Cork University Hospital (CUH) – should be scrapped.

Kerry General Hospital has been guaranteed that it is exempt from any cuts proposed in the report due for publication on June 9 – four days after the local and European elections.

Pressure is mounting on the Government to scrap the Team Work report altogether.

“The people in the catchment area of Bantry General Hospital should be given the same assurances as the people of Kerry,” Mr O’Shea said.

He is calling on the Government to immediately bin “this failed, politically-motivated report” and to give an undertaking that Bantry General Hospital won’t be downgraded.

“I want assurances that hospital management will be able to put 14 closed beds back into service, retain the hospital’s 24-hour surgical services, its intensive care unit and casualty department on a 24-hour basis,” Mr O’Shea said.

The Fine Gael councillor said the failure of the Government to give a clear undertaking before June 5 to the people of the Bantry area would be interpreted as a preludeto downgrading the facility.

Meanwhile, the brakes were applied to a tractor protest yesterday which left Bantry on Sunday, and which was due to arrive at the Dáil on Thursday, to protest over cutbacks to local hospital services.

Campaigner Joe Burke, who is running as an independent candidate in the local elections, was planning to lead the convoy to collect signatures at CUH yesterday.

But hospital authorities warned him a large convoy would create traffic chaos on the campus and pose a danger to the safe running of the hospital.

“You have to respect that. We don’t want to cause any trouble,” Mr Burke said.

As a result, he scaled back his convoy to just two vehicles.

He is due to meet campaigners in Mallow today fighting to maintain services at the town’s general hospital.

But whether he plans to continue the protest all the way to the Dáil was unclear last night.

Mr Burke said he was hoping to contact Cork South West Fianna Fáil TD Christy O’Sullivan to help arrange a meeting with Health Minister Mary Harney to discuss the hospital issue.