Yesterday it was the closure of St Patrick’s College, Thurles, today according to the Health Service Executive (HSE), emergency treatments for patients at Nenagh General Hospital, Co Tipperary, will cease later this month.
Patients will now have to travel to the emergency department of the Mid-West Regional Hospital in Limerick to be assessed and treated. Any coronary related referrals from Doctors will now be directed to Limerick, thus cancelling all Coronary Care promised through Nenagh, despite €4 million having been secured for the hospital during the term of the last Fianna Fáil led Government. Limerick Regional is one of the hospitals with a severe budget overrun of around €10m and will have to close beds in the coming months to save money.
Emergency 999 calls from Tipperary will go direct to Limerick.
With effect from September 17th, a local injuries unit will only operate in Nenagh from 8.00am to 8.00pm. This will deal with adults and children over the age of five years, treating cases such as wounds, broken bones & other soft tissue injuries.
Nenagh has already lost its 24-hour emergency department since April of 2009, when it was downgraded to the status of a 12-hour local emergency centre.
Add these two recently announced issues to the closure of the Garda Training College in Templemore, failure to restore beds in Thurles Hospital of the Assumption, and an ugly picture quickly emerges of the sheer neglect of North Tipperary by our three TD’s, namely Lowry, (See Here ) Coonan, (See Here ) & Kelly, two of which, if we are to believe recent press reports, do not work full-time anymore in Dail Eireann.
Staff, Doctors, Patient Groups and Public Representatives are being briefed on the development so expect the “gombeen,” political press releases from our political representatives again tomorrow.
An example of “gombeen,” political press releases appeared this morning regarding St Patricks College.
Alan Kelly: “They (St Patrick’s College) and Alan Kelly are collectively working to see if St Patrick’s can come under the remit of the Limerick Centre for Teacher Training.” Readers Note: Starting from September 2011, teaching degree programmes at St. Patrick’s College have been accredited by the University of Limerick, and graduates from this year onwards are being awarded degrees from same University. Students attending St Patricks from Tipperary, many have had their education grants cut by €2,000, because they travel from home each day to the college.
Noel Coonan: “Has contacted Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister of State Ciaran Cannon on this issue.” You old name dropper you. Wonder did you Phone, Email, or Fax. Two things are obvious, (A) You was not made aware of the closure prior to Minister Ruairí Quinn’s announcement & (B) You were not talking to him at a coffee break on any recent Friday.
Enda Kenny: May 25th 2012, “The prospectus for Thurles should be as fine as anywhere else and I will take Deputy Coonan up on his offer to come back to Thurles with positive news for the town.” Thurles waits patiently Taoiseach, even a bit of Mayo National Lottery Funding would assist. It would appear “the silly season,” is just beginning.
Michael Lowry: No one tells Lowry anything in the Dáil either “Deputy Michael Lowry has welcomed the announcement that a planned €200 million investment will be made to LIT Limerick and Tipperary campuses over the coming number of years as part of LIT’s Campus Masterplan 2030”. He made this statement public today, Thursday 6th Sept 2012, with no mention of the proposed closure of St Patrick’s College.
Do we have any communication between TDs whatsoever, in our lower house of the Oireachtas. It would appear that Matthew 6: Verse 3, “Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth,” takes on a whole new meaning for our North Tipperary elected representatives.
Please comment hereunder and express your feelings before North Tipperary is laid totally waste.
Leave a Reply