HEALTH SERVICES in Clare remain an emotive subject and a clash between local activists sparked off this week.
At election hustings, it is generally between political candidates where things get heated but on Monday evening it representatives from different health activist groups that clashed.
Eleven of the twenty General Election candidates attended the Hybrid Simulation Modelling Lab (HSML) forum on Monday evening where the subject was solely health. Dan Danaher of The Clare Champion was the chair of the forum.
Candidates in attendance included, Eddie Punch (II), Kevin Hassett (IND), Cathal Crowe TD (FF), Leonora Carey (FG), Senator Timmy Dooley (FF), Cllr Rita Mcinerney (FF), Amanda Major (IND), Dr Tom Nolan (FG), Hilary Tonge (SD), Violet-Anne Wynne TD (IND) and Michael Leahy (IFP).
Absent candidates told The Clare Echo there was confusion with the date of the event while organisers have admitted emails to candidates “bounced back”.
Ennis woman, Sinead Madden who conducted an independent study into the provision of acute hospital beds in the Mid-West region was the chief organiser of Monday’s event.
During her contribution she referenced the work of Friends of Ennis Hospital and said one of their maps on improving health services in Mid-West “left it at average” and did not identify how further inroads could be made.
Chairperson of Friends of Ennis Hospital, Angela Coll attempted to respond at this moment but was not let and was informed there would be an opportunity to ask questions later in the discussion.
When given the opportunity to speak, Angela criticised the manner in which it was suggested all their work “boils down to one map”. Sinead responded, “on the emergency department population for this particular map you left it at that and didn’t continue on the qualification”.
Angela advised “not all of the document we submitted to HIQA is on our website, we did deliberately withhold some of that information. Fifteen years of work by me and my colleagues doesn’t boil down to maps”.
As the event was drawing to a close, Sinead was issuing her thanks to all for attending. She said, “We’re all here for Clare, I asked three campaign groups to participate in the survey, two did and Friends of Ennis Hospital did not, I made four attempts to contact Friends of Ennis Hospital but got nothing. I think going forward both groups should be together, if we don’t have continuity how are we going to fight against Limerick, everything is a fight to try get stuff, we need to come together on this, I’d love Friends of Ennis Hospital to come on board. I know Angela is here, who else is on Friends of Ennis Hospital? I’m not diminishing the work but it would be good for the county if both worked together”.
Seated beside Angela was PRO of the group, Deirdre Culligan who stated, “We asked for clarification points” and she claimed they asked Sinead for a copy of her report. “Why would I give a private report to someone else, I don’t want it plagiarised,” Sinead stated while confirming only Bernard Gloster and Sandra Broderick of the HSE have viewed her report along with Danaher.
Madden made her way from the top of the floor with a microphone in hand and then landed a copy of the report on Culligan’s lap. “We asked for further clarification, we didn’t want any confusion,” Deirdre said.
Coll outlined that they mentioned the prospect of a model four hospital to Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly (FF) in April to which Sinead said, “I’m the only person to have a study in the Mid-West mentioning a model four”.
Claims were then made regarding social media comments and not acknowledging Sinead’s paper to which Culligan stated, “it wouldn’t stand up in court”.
Outgoing Clare TD, Cathal Crowe (FF) when attempting to diffuse the situation said both groups “have done great work” and said the county needs them to be in unison as he urged the chair to bring the evening to a halt.
In a statement to The Clare Echo, Angela said “Since its foundation in 2009 friends of Ennis hospital has maintained a data driven patient focused approach to challenging the status quo in terms of healthcare in the Mid-West region. Our data sources are openly available on our website and we have built up a database of facts figures and numbers over many years and hours of tedious and time-consuming research. We are non-political and do not drive any agenda other than better patient outcomes for people in our county”.
She continued, “There are certain actions we will never take and certain views we will not waiver from we will never abuse the trust placed in us by our supporters to attack other campaigners or health advocates. We will never apologise for advocating solely for county Clare, we are proud to wave the saffron and blue. We will always fight for patient safety and be cognisant of the data produced by prior health care reports regarding the population requirements to maintain a safe level of clinical standards”.
Friends of Ennis Hospital is not part of the Mid-West Hospital Campaign “because we do not share their commitment to the reopening of 3 EDs in the Mid-West. We do not see that as a feasible practical or cost effective solution to overcrowding in UHL FEH were at one time part of the Midwest Health campaign but were kicked out in April of 2023 after a post on our Facebook account stated that ‘that an A& E in Nenagh was of no use whatsoever to the people of West Clare’. We stand over that assessment from our PRO Deirdre Culligan as Nenagh is as far from Loop Head as UHL is. While their reaction was disappointing we did not hold a grudge and moved on with our own body of work”.
Sinead confirmed to The Clare Echo that she has not been a member of either group but follows the activities of both. “By uniting our efforts, we can push for healthcare services that meet national best-practice standards or surpass them. Clare’s health infrastructure must be designed with a 50-year vision, ensuring sustainability and excellence,” she said.
