Top Surgeon Says HSE is Using Pol Pot Tactics

By Petrina Vousden

PROMINENT heart surgeon has accused the HSE of acting like genocidal dictator Pol Pot by slashing services in the north-east.

Maurice Neligan said health chiefs systematic stripping of hospital services in the area before the site for a replacement hospital has been chosen reminded him of the methods used by the Cambodian tyrant.

I wouldnt like to live in the northeast as, for some obscure reason, it seems to have been chosen as some form of guinea pig on the road to the first class health service.

It reminds me somewhat of the social engineering that marked Pol Pots Cambodia. First you get rid of anybody who could read or write and then you start over with fresh slate, Mr Neligan said.

The north-east is currently served by acute general hospitals in Navan, Monaghan, Cavan, Louth and Drogheda.

But following a recommendation in a 2006 report, they are to be replaced by a single new hospital the location for which has yet to be decided.

Mr Neligan said: This was to be a classic Hanly report unit, serving a population of approximately 350,000. It was accepted on all sides, albeit reluctantly by the HSE, that local services would not be downgraded before the replacement facility was in place. All of this sounds reasonable& However, in dealing with these folk, nothing is ever simple.

In his Irish Times column, Mr Neligan, the former cardiac consultant at the Mater Hospital and one of the founders of the Black-rock Clinic, said: I would remind the good people of the region put not your trust in princes, basically because if you do, youre likely to get shafted.

Throughout the whole area, services have been systematically downgraded and abolished. As if this was not bad enough, all the hospitals in the region have been hit very badly by the freeze in recruitment and replacement.

A document circulated to hospital managers in the region tells of further shocks in store. Reduce orthopaedic surgery in Navan by 25 per cent, close beds in poor old Monaghan and take it and Louth Hospital off call. Elective surgery in Monaghan and Cavan is to be reduced and outpatient clinics also and Louth Hospital is to have a shorter working day.

Claiming the only thing constant about the Minister for Health andthe HSE was their inconstancy, Mr Neligan wrote: Would you believe, in the wide open spaces of these north-eastern counties, they have not yet identified a suitable site? Not alone has a site not been identified but it is intimated that such a decision is on hold pending discussions with the Northern authorities on cross- border cooperation.

Now patients just sit and suffer at home unless they are fortunate enough to get picked up by that other unaccountable white elephant, the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

A HSE spokesman denied last night there was any question of downgrading any hospital in the north-east before replacement services are put in place.

He added: Hopefully, early this year we will be able to name a site.

The HSE reiterated that the document cited by Mr Neligan proposing cuts was a draft internal document.

No decisions have been taken on reducing services in the north- east. We are facing a challenging year and we are exploring how best to deliver services within budget. We should be in a position by mid- February to be more definitive.

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