Those lobbying against the implementation of two reports on the reorganisation of health services in the northeast were acting "irresponsibly" and were "scaremongering for self-interest", the head of the Health Service Executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, said yesterday.
"I would ask people to question the motives of these individuals," he told the Dáil's health committee during a debate which went on for six hours.
His comments, just days after up to 8,000 people turned out in Monaghan to protest at a proposal in one of the reports that all acute services be withdrawn from Monaghan General Hospital as soon as possible, met with severe criticism from two local TDs attending the meeting.
Independent TD Paudge Connolly said the comments were insulting and Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin branded them outrageous and called on Prof Drumm to withdraw them.
Prof Drumm refused. He added that he would not see the Teamwork report and the report into the death of Pat Joe Walsh "torn up" as some had suggested, and that it would be irresponsible of him to ignore their recommendations in the interests of patient safety.
Furthermore he said the people of the northeast did not themselves "appear to have the type of confidence they should" in their local hospitals as a huge percentage of them were travelling to Dublin hospitals for treatment.
Mr Connolly listed the names of three patients who died of heart attacks and who he claimed might have been saved if they could have been treated in Monaghan. They were dead on arrival at other hospitals.
Prof Drumm said again that this was scaremongering.
The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, who was also before the committee, said services in future would only be provided where it was safe to do so.
She said for as long as she had been in Leinster House there had been reports into tragedies in the northeast and too often politics had got in the way of their implementation.
She would not, she added, be using powers under the Health Act to give direction to the HSE not to act on the latest reports on the northeast.
She understood the vast bulk of what currently happened in Monaghan hospital would still happen there after the reports were implemented.
Stressing the need for changes Prof Drumm said the level of admissions to hospitals in the northeast was way out of line with the rest of the country and the rest of the world.
Patients in the region were more likely to be admitted to hospital if they were sick and this was something the HSE would look at. And the average length of stay of patients also had to be examined. In Cavan hospital, this was seven days, compared to just four days in Mullingar General Hospital.
He stressed the people of the northeast should see the changes planned as an opportunity to have better services developed in their region.
On a separate issue, Ms Harney told the committee 11,000 claims for nursing home refunds had now been processed. She said the amounts offered as refunds on average ranged from €20,000 to €25,000 and applicants for refunds had 28 days to accept or reject them. The first payments, she said, under the scheme would be made in November.
Meanwhile, Prof Drumm said the fact the HSE had to cancel "only" 22,000 operations last year was "a phenomenal performance" given that hospitals deal with 5,000 admissions a week.
He also said he was hopeful consultant contract talks could resume soon and signalled a range of options would be on the table. These would allow for example for full- and part-time working in public hospitals.
And he told the meeting the HSE fully accepted the need for the report which reviewed deaths at the Leas Cross nursing home in north Dublin to be made public.