HEALTH Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has agreed to meet with 14 Mid West Oireachtas members who were signatories to a letter calling on her to discuss recommendations for the delivery of emergency care here.
Department of Health has written to Deputy Joe Cooney confirming that Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill agreed to meet this Wednesday (November 26) at Leinster House. The meeting will also be attended by relevant Department of Health Officials.
Over recent weeks, the Oireachtas group worked to build political consensus on the three options outlined in the recent HIQA report for delivering healthcare services in the Mid West.
The group held two meetings in recent weeks, one with HSE Mid West management and another with the Mid West Patient and Service Users Council.
In meeting the Minister, they will be stressing the need to implement all three HIQA recommendations, namely the expansion of University Hospital Limerick both on and-offsite and the building of a new Model 3 hospital, with an emergency department, in the region.
Opening the new 96-bed unit at UHL recently, Minister Carroll MacNeill promised that a decision on which HIQA option the government will choose will be confirmed before Christmas.
The Oireachtas members, in their letter to the Minister, outlined a cross-party proposal, signed by members from Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary, and co-signed by the HSE Patient and Service User Council, the representative body for approximately 420,000 patients across the region.
“Viewing the three options contained in the HIQA report as a suite of measures, rather than choices, offers the only pathway to restoring hope and achieving equity in healthcare for future generations here in the Mid West,” the letter said.
The group told the Minister that “it is also essential that you include the indicative costings for these proposals in the Revised National Development Plan in order to provide clear evidence to our constituents and service users across the Mid West of the commitment from you Minister, your Department, and that of government, to delivering equitable and sustainable healthcare for all citizens.”
The letter was signed by Deputy Joe Cooney, Minister Patrick O’Donovan, Minister Timmy Dooley, Minister Niall Collins, Deputy Willie O Dea, Deputy Cathal Crowe, Deputy Maurice Quinlivan, Deputy Donna McGettigan, Deputy Richard O’Donoghue, Deputy Ryan O’Meara, Senator Maria Byrne, Senator Joanne Collins, Senator Martin Conway, Senator Dee Ryan, and John Wall, HSE Patient and Service User Council chairman.