Alliance statement 120711

Scairbh

gCaorach

EMYVALE

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Statement from Monaghan Community Alliance.

For almost two years now the people of Monaghan have endured the added trauma, added distress, added pain, and added costs of the ‘enhanced and better services’ which we were presented with when the HSE and last Government removed all emergency and acute in-patient services from Monaghan General Hospital. We have also asked – was the best chance of survival given to those who died on the way or shortly after arrival in that distant hospital.

‘The situation is deplorable and totally unacceptable’ says Peadar McMahon, Chairman of the Alliance, ‘a mountain of paper would not record the number of complaints and horror stories we have been told. Unfortunately people are afraid to make their complaints public as they feel it might be interpreted as a criticism of staff, whom they may have to rely on again in the future. Meanwhile the spin doctors are hard at work in their efforts to convince people that the removal of services is for patient safety’.

Roscommon is a case in point where a figure for deaths in Roscommon was quoted at 21% by authorities but when this was queried a more accurate figure of 6% was given. Similar misquoting of figures was used in the demolishing of the services in Monaghan. HIQA, it now seems, never visited Roscommon and never reviewed its safety level yet the public were given to understand that this was the reason why services had to be removed from Roscommon immediately. There never was a report to show that Monaghan was unsafe either yet that it was unsafe was repeated continuously until the general public began to believe it despite the fact that a medical audit carried out in Monaghan in 2007/2008 proved that Monaghan had outcomes to equal and in some cases better than those of some of our larger so called ‘Centres of Excellence’. Still they took that from us and gave us services, where no audit had been carried out.

Emergency services, Doc-on-Call and weekly clinics are all causing serious problems in Monaghan. The Advanced Paramedic service, which was promised, has gradually diminished and is no longer guaranteed to be able to attend an emergency as First Responder or at all. The ambulance service is under severe pressure and has at times to call on GPs, Doc-on-Call and the Fire Brigade to help out in critical cases. Our Doc-on-call has also been reduced yet the administration for the service has not been reduced. Weekly clinics and work in the hospital has suffered from what appears to be new administrative systems, leading to the situation where visiting consultants are reported to be unhappy with the arrangements and may refuse to travel to Monaghan at all. Three weekly maternity clinics were reduced to one and now 90 pregnant ladies have to STAND for hours waiting their turn, without access to any canteen facilities or even drinking water, nor have they a choice of consultant. We continually heard the mantra – ‘services will be improved and enhanced at Monaghan, it will be a very busy place, it will play a very important role in the provision of services in the region’ – it has not happened.

What do we want done?
At our meeting on Tuesday, July 12th it was agreed that we needed the following forthwith:

1. One of our 7-point demands was that an independent review be carried out on the emergency services available to the people in Monaghan. We call on HIQA to carry out this review and also to carry out a review on Cavan and Drogheda hospitals and we demand that the Minister ensures that this happens immediately.

2. We demand that the Minor Injuries Unit be upgraded and allowed to treat a higher level of presentation.

3. We also call on the HSE management in Cavan/Monaghan to rectify the problems with Clinics in Monaghan and to provide adequate funding for the proper provision of Doc-on-Call services.

Many of the electorate believed, as they had been told, that a change of Government would mean a change of policy but this has not happened. A Medical Assessment Unit would be a beneficial addition to the diagnostics in Monaghan but would not offer any assistance in times of heart attack, stroke, severe bleeding from accident, or such emergency situations. We call on all our Government public representatives, TDs and Councillors, to stand by the people who elected them and ensure that the people of Monaghan are provided with proper and immediate access to hospital services in Monaghan General Hospital. If this is not forthcoming then they should seriously consider where their loyalties lie. More and more communities are beginning to realise the horrible truth that their services are being eroded and what that will mean to them. They are preparing to take to the streets – we may have to do that again too.

The arguments being used by the Government and HSE do not hold water and are not backed up by independent research. Already this week they have been contradicted by evidence supplied by hospitals. Medical Consultants are also differing in their arguments, with some opposing the downgrading and others supporting. International evidence is similar, depending on who commissioned the research, though there is general agreement that for the very major and very complex surgeries, in a few procedures, volume does have an impact on outcomes. Much of the policy is based on guiding principles devised to suit highly populated areas like Greater London, Paris, Greater Manchester etc where there is much more advanced infrastructure but it cannot be imposed as suitable for rural Ireland. The policy is also driven by certain vested interests who stand to gain financially. The method of implementing the policy is also flawed – close a service and save money and then use the savings to build up the resources in the larger hospital. It turns out that no money is saved and there are no savings to increase resources in the larger unit and we end up with chaos and more patient suffering. It is time to change the policy and we depend on our Fine Gael TDs and Councillors to force a beginning of that process or resign.