LABOUR PARTY leader Eamon Gilmore called for the resignation of Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday and claimed she was not committed to the public health service.
Mr Gilmore was speaking in Limerick where he described plans by the HSE to centralise accident and emergency services in the midwest as “very bad for the region”.
The HSE is due to transfer round-the-clock A&E services from Ennis and Nenagh to the MidWestern Regional Hospital in Limerick from Monday.
However, unions claim themove will result in serious health and safety issues for patients and staff in Limerick, and have said they will not co-operate with any changes to their work practices.
“I believe that if now, in the face of an economic crisis, the Government and HSE take short-term decisions and start removing key services from those hospitals, within two decades our children will be paying their taxes to have those hospitals back built up again,” Mr Gilmore said.
He questioned the political leadership that has been given to the HSE, and claimed Ms Harney was the “wrong person” to lead the Department of Health.
“The Labour Party has on a number of occasions called for the resignation or the removal of the Minister for Health. I don’t think she should continue as Minister . . . I have no argument with her integrity or her ability . . . if the Taoiseach wants to move her to another department by all means, but she is the wrong Minister in this very key department at this time.”
Mr Gilmore was speaking in Limerick yesterday at the launch of Labour candidate Senator Alan Kelly’s European election campaign.
Senator Kelly, who is PRO of the Nenagh Hospital Action Group, described the HSE’s plans to centralise A&E services as “medically insane”, and said the HSE had not engaged with local doctors who are opposed to the plan.