Call for resignation of Peamount manager rejected by Minister

The Minister for Health rejected a call for the resignation of the chief executive of Peamount Hospital when replying to questions about the treatment of patients with infectious tuberculosis.

Mr Paul Gogarty (Green Party, Dublin Mid West) said: "In my view, the chief executive of Peamount, Mr Mullen, has acted negligently and incompetently regarding patient care at the hospital, and he should resign his position immediately. He has disregarded the advice of the leading experts on TB, the advice of diligent staff and of referring general practitioners in the wider community." The Ceann Comhairle, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, said it was absolutely out of order to name people in the House.

Mr Martin said it was unfair to suggest that the manager of a specific hospital was incompetent or negligent. "This remark should be withdrawn in fairness to the individual concerned who cannot defend himself in the House. The manager and the hospital have received advice from the chief medical officer based on the Comhairle report. Even a lay person could see difficulties in Peamount continuing as a hospital, given the absence of the requisite multidisciplinary consultant teams one would think would ordinarily be required for the admission and treatment of those who are acutely ill with TB." Mr Martin said the absence of a full-time respiratory physician and anaesthesia in the case of ventilation difficulties should be borne in mind.

Earlier, Mr Gogarty argued that the main argument used by the managers of Peamount was nonsense, namely that it was acting on the advice of Comhairle na nOspideál. "This is because Comhairle's advice is just advice and can and has been ignored on countless occasions . . ."