Minister asked to intervene over orthopaedic cuts

HEALTH Minister James Reilly is to be asked to intervene after the HSE announced plans to close 50% of the surgical facility at Croom Orthopaedic Hospital in Co Limerick for eight months.

The controversial move, which unions say will be “disastrous” for orthopaedic patients, is to be raised in the Dáil this week.

Fine Gael TD Patrick O’Donovan said yesterday the matter cannot go unchallenged. “I understand there are budgets constraints within the mid-western hospital group but, as was pointed out previously and as I will be pointing out to the minister and the HSE over the next few days, Croom has not and is not the problem here in terms of budgetary constraints.