Sir, – In “That was the year that was for health” (HEALTHplus, December 27th), Joanne Hunt claims Fine Gael was “forced to rue its pre-election promise when it closes emergency services at Roscommon Hospital in July, describing the emergency department at the hospital as ‘unsafe’.”. Ms Hunt fails to note that this assertion of the unsafety of the department was later rebutted. Hiqa inspectors had never visited the hospital and the “unsafe” claim was based on an evaluation at Ennis hospital. It was assumed that because Roscommon hospital was of a similar size, the evaluation could be duplicated.
It was later shown that conditions at Roscommon’s emergency department were quite safe, and Denis Naughten TD intends to ask Minister for Health James Reilly for an apology to the people of Roscommon and the staff of the hospital when the Dáil resumes. Fine Gael had not been “forced” to “rue” anything. – Yours, etc,