Booming nation lumbered with a health system gone bust
There are now proposals in place to transfer the A&E at Navan Hospital to Drogheda in Co Louth, a hospital unable to cope with its own emergencies, bursting at the seams and with chronic traffic making the town virtually inaccessible during the day.
As the new census has shown, Meath is the fastest growing county in the country with four national primary routes carrying potential for major traffic accidents, and a major mining operation outside Navan.
If Navan is to be the Galway or Limerick of the North East and treble its population to 60,000 within the decade, it deserves the best possible A&E services. It is ridiculous to proclaim Navan an emerging city when we don’t even have a paediatric ward in the county hospital.
Taking off my county jersey, why is it that hospitals have become such a contentious issue all around this country? With the census showing a booming Irish population, it is mad that hospitals nationwide are under threat of downgrading or closure. Why is it that doubling health expenditure saw no real results and waiting lists continued to rise?
Is it that we are not getting value for money? In taking on the fight for my own local Navan hospital I would be delighted to hear from other concerned people regarding their own hospitals in other Health Board areas, in the hope that we can form a truly national lobby for a better health service for all our people, regardless of the present monetary or geographic discrepancies which are creating an apartheid in the system.
Damien English TD,
16, Bridge Street,
Navan,
Co Meath
