Hospital Action Group Protest
The HSE Director-General designate, Mr Tony O’Brien, has stated that there are no plans to open further beds in the Hospital of the Assumption here in Thurles, Co Tipperary.
Earlier this year the number of beds open in the Hospital was reduced to 50 “within existing resources,” Mr O’Brien told a Joint Oireachtas Health Committee.
Mr O’Brien further stated that the overall position would be actively reviewed within the context of the HSE’s National Service Plan 2013. The Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly stated, “I made it clear that I would seek to have beds reopened on the basis that it was a modern facility and that we needed rehabilitation services. I did not specify the number of beds.”
Fine Gael Deputy Noel Coonan stated at a public meeting last October, in front of a packed lecture theatre in the Tipperary Institute, that a “substantial number of beds,” would be re-opened within three weeks. It was intimated that up to 10 respite beds would be brought back into operation and the Deputy cited the same Chief Executive Officer of the HSE Mr Tony O’Brien, and the Secretary General of the Department of Health, Mr Ambrose McLoughlin as the source of his unexpected announcement.
There were 72 beds in this hospital originally prior to a current recruitment moratorium.
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