Several hundred people are protesting outside the emergency department at Roscommon County Hospital today over the downgrade of services.
The department shut today and was replaced by an “urgent care centre” operating from 8am to 8pm. For four weeks only, from 8pm to 8am, the unit will be staffed by a non-consultant hospital doctor supervised by a consultant surgeon.
The urgent care centre will not accept heart attack nor stroke patients or people in need of major or complex trauma surgery. They will be transported to Galway, Sligo or Mayo.
The accident and emergency department at Midland General hospital in Mullingar is continuing to accept patients despite some reports suggesting it was refusing to take them.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny came under sustained attack from Opposition parties last night over his attempt to distance himself from a general election pledge to retain the emergency department at the hospital.
Two Roscommon councillors have demanded Mr Kenny apologise to their constituents as they resigned from Fine Gael over the downgrading of hospital services.
Dominick Connolly and Laurence Fallon have accused Mr Kenny and Minister for Health James Reilly of reneging on promises to protect Roscommon hospital’s A&E.
As the emergency department at Roscommon shut, Mr Connolly claimed promises had been broken.
“I think the Taoiseach and James Reilly should come down here to Roscommon, to the hospital, and offer an apology to the people of Roscommon and the staff and the patients for misleading them in those statements in February,” the councillor said.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has accused the Taoiseach of misleading the Dáil on the issue.
Sinn Féin’s Caoimhgín Ó Caoláin said the Taoiseach should “honour his pledge” and prevent the closure, adding: “Enda Kenny’s denial that he made any such commitment has now been exposed as false”.
Mr Kenny was not available to take questions on the issue after the National Day of Commemoration ceremony in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, with a spokesman citing “the solemnity of the occasion”.
However, last night Mr Kenny issued a statement expressing regret over “any confusion” arising from his response to a weekend query regarding general election commitments on Roscommon hospital.
Speaking to an RTÉ reporter at the Fine Gael convention in Dublin on Saturday, he was asked if he had “made any personal promises” on the hospital during the election.
“I was at pains around the country to say, on more than one radio station, that I wasn’t travelling the country making promises that I couldn’t stand over,” he replied.
However, a Sunday newspaper released a recording yesterday of Mr Kenny telling a Fine Gael rally in Roscommon in February: “We are committed to maintaining the services in Roscommon County Hospital”.
Mr Martin said: “This is a serious instance not just because he was caught falsely denying his own claims, but because he has done so repeatedly and misled the Dáil on this matter as recently as this week.
“As well as apologising to the people of Roscommon for both breaking and denying his personal promise to protect all of the hospital’s services, he should also apologise to the Dáil.
“On Tuesday he angrily rejected my claim that he had made a commitment to the hospital and said he was ‘sick of words being put into [his] mouth’.
“He clearly would have kept to this line if a journalist hadn’t kept a recording of his election statement in Roscommon,” Mr Martin said.
Labour Senator John Kelly, who ran unsuccessfully for the Dáil in Roscommon-South Leitrim said: “I possibly lost a seat because of that promise by Mr Kenny and the Fine Gael Health Spokesman Dr James Reilly. That promise was enough for the majority of people to vote Fine Gael in this constituency – it was a very strong commitment.
“I’m a man of my word and if I got elected on that promise and it was reneged on I would do what Denis Naughten has done and vote against the Government. But if every politician in Roscommon resigned in protest, we would have no voice at the Cabinet table and no voice in Government,” he said.
Sinn Féin has announced a series of protests at hospitals across the State today. The protests began at Loughlinstown, Tallaght, Mallow, Letterkenny, Monaghan and Sligo at about 1pm.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan refused to be drawn into the controversy when he attended the National Day of Commemoration event at City Hall in Limerick yesterday morning.
“I don’t want to comment on an interview I haven’t heard,” he said.
When asked about Mr Naughten, who lost the Fine Gael whip after he voted against cutbacks at Roscommon, he said the Deputy could always apply to re-enter the party.
“It’s not an easy time to be in Government and we have to work every day, the country is in a bad state and we have to work our way out of it and it won’t be done overnight," he said.