Campaigners vow to fight for children's hospital future
Campaigners tonight vowed to fight for the reinstatement of services at a children’s hospital as the Dáil debated a motion calling on the Government to reverse swingeing cutbacks.
Parents said patients at Our Lady’s Crumlin were reassured by a visit from cross-party politicians who saw first-hand the impact of ward closures at the site.
Teresa Shallow, of the Save Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Campaign, pleaded with members of the Dáil to join forces and put pressure on Health Minister Mary Harney and Health Service Executive (HSE) chief Professor Brendan Drumm to put much-needed funds back in.
“Today there was still children in ICU because there was no beds to transfer them out. That’s how dramatic the cuts are,” Ms Shallow said.
A protest at the site will go ahead this Saturday despite a u-turn on the planned closures of two more wards and a second theatre in the coming months.
Fine Gael’s health spokesman James Reilly called on the Government to see sense and on backbenchers to vote with their conscience and not just follow party loyalty.
“Be loyal to the children, be loyal to the people,” he said.
The fact-finding visit by the Dáil’s committee on health and children came ahead of a possible meeting with the HSE chief to discuss the situation in the coming weeks.
Mr Reilly, a GP, said figures from the hospital revealed it has increased its day case procedures, total bed days used, out-patient, theatre procedures and ICU beds, while numbers to the emergency department remained the same.
“The bottom line here is that this is a hospital that runs very efficiently,” he continued.
“It is not over-staffed, in fact it is under-staffed and the bottom line is children are going to suffer.
“It’s billions for the bankers and cutbacks for the kids. From my point of view it’s not acceptable and these cutbacks needs to be reversed.
“Savings needs to be made but let them be made where they should be made.”
Mrs Shallow, a mother-of-five from Walkinstown whose teenage son had open heart surgery at the hospital when he was four, said the politician’s visit to the facility will keep their protest in the headlines.
“It is putting the word out there to all the other parents not to lose hope,” she continued.
“It shows we are there, we are going to go on fighting, and we want parents to know they are now alone fighting for their children.”
Mrs Shallow stressed there was no guarantee more cuts won’t be made in the future because management is still under financial strain.
“Our point is that they have already closed a ward and they have already closed a theatre and they have not been reinstated,” added Mrs Shallow.
“We are still going to fight for the €9.6m that the hospital dramatically needs to be put into the hospital.”
