Call to arms for community hospital

MUCH attention has been focused on hospital closures, but that obscures the reduction in community healthcare services.

These are the main casualties of the financial shortfalls. Child clinics, visits by public health nurses and special services for particular groups are badly affected. Some of the decisions are callous in their effects on those least able to bear them.

Midleton community hospital and home in east Cork has provided great care for old folk over many years.