“Monaghan has suffered most from FF/FG Health policies – It’s time for change” – Matt Carthy
“No county has suffered more from the health policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael which have been marked by failure, broken promises and record waiting times” according to general election candidate Matt Carthy.
The Sinn Féin representative said the issue of health, “particularly the decimation of acute hospital services in Monaghan”, has once again come to the fore in this election campaign as the implications of the decisions taking by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have led to the extreme overcrowding in other hospitals.
Carthy, who is seeking election to Leinster House with party colleague Pauline Tully in Cavan, said: “Let’s be clear about what has happened in the last two decades of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil governments in this State. Acute hospital services, including accident and emergency, maternity and intensive care, were stripped away from the people of Monaghan with the targeted and deliberate running down of the hospital which had served them so well over many years.
“That was the deliberate government policy – to focus most of the acute services into Drogheda and to leave people in Monaghan without. This has, as my colleague Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin predicated, resulted in the people of Monaghan being left behind when it comes to healthcare.
“Across County Monaghan GPs are under enormous pressure while patients find it near impossible to secure an appointment with their local doctor, the premier basis for healthcare. My constituency office regularly deals with parents in desperation because of the shocking waiting list times for vital assessments for their children and are often informed they will be forced to wait up to four years for ‘urgent’ consultation.
“Older people are forced to wait years for hip and knee replacements, while just last month, the horrific new record of 760 patients awaiting admission to hospitals on a single day across the State was set.
“These are the joint legacy of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments. We in Sinn Féin are determined to address the health crisis. There has to be the immediate of lifting the recruitment embargo on frontline staff and expanding capacity in our hospitals.
“In the longer term though we require a radical overhaul of the health system as advocated by Sinn Féin. Central to this must be the restoration and development of services at hospitals such as Monaghan in order to ease the pressures on other centres”.
ENDS
