Wexford Hospital on life support

I’m shocked at the resignation of Dr Colm Quigley as as lead in the reconfiguration of hospitals in the south east region of the HSE. Earlier this week I met Dr Quigley at a meeting to set up a Community Alliance to support Wexford General Hospital. He didn’t convey the image of someone who was on the verge of resignation. So what has happened this week to culminate in his resignation?

A good old fashioned piece of journalism on the part of South East Radio. The leaking of a confidential document outlining proposals to downgrade A&E long with the planned transfer of maternity to Waterford Regional Hospital was a seemingly a step too far for Dr Quigley. The document set out that 2 hospitals in the region Kilkenny and Waterford would provide most of the regions general needs while Wexford would provide A&E cover on a 9-5 basis.

A&E is crucial to any hospital since most of the workload comes through the A&E department. For anyone in Enniscorthy, Gorey or Wexford the local hospital is the only alternative to a long drive to either Waterford or Lughlinstown. Dr Colm Quigley is a very strong advocate for Wexford and his role on the reconfiguration team did give a certain level of comfort to us in Wexford that the hospital would in some way have a future after services were reconfigured. Now all bets are effectively off and it seems that the gloves are quickly coming off and that just 1 week after the ending of Irish Rail services in to Rosslare from Waterford, Wexford is once more going to lose out.


The real effect of the resignation will be that morale among hospital staff will slump as Fianna Fail and the Greens stand back while Mary Harney and the Hse do their dirty work. The usual old guff about no cuts have been proposed and that money is ring fenced serves as the comfort blanket by government TD’s and councillors. The reality is that the reduction in HSE capital spending will mean that the service will be cut before the A&E in Waterford is built, an adequate ambulance service will not be in place to ensure that patients can access services and Labour will be left to clear up this governments mess.

Recently someone asked me will Labour force Irish Rail to re-open the Waterford rail line. I responded “Tell me what you want me to cut to provide the money?” That’s not to suggest I’m flakey on re-opening the line, I’m not. The wider reality is that there is so much damage done now it’ll take decades to undo the last few years of government.

Wexford walks tall on Demo Day

The sceptics got their answer today. There were those who said that the rally and march in support of the hospital would flop. There were those who would have loved to see the demonstration fall flat on its face today but in the end the people won out. Fair play to Seamus O’Brien and his committee who worked night and day to ensure a huge crowd turned out on the day.

There were over 5,000 on the march in my view. Because the streets are so narrow its hard to get a full picture of the crowd but when the head of the march was at the lights at King St you couldn’t see the end of the march as it hadn’t got past Barrack St Post Office. The crowd were ordinary people from around the county, parents pushing children in buggies who were in all likelihood born at the hospital, elderly people who relied on the hospital for care, those of us whose only interaction was bringing a child to A&E and all points in between. The turnout was helped by the excellent weather but that’s not to say that the people of Wexford are fair weather friends of healthcare. We had to stop marching at the front so that the tail of the march could catch up.

The reality is that Brendan Howlin told the crowd that soon the draft report from the HSE for re-configuration will be available to local deputies. The services we need to protect are 24 hour A&E cover, maternity services, Intensive care and coronary care. What is fundamental is the need to maintain A&E round the clock. A&E is central to any hospital as most patients enter through it as opposed to elective admissions. Recently more consultants were relocated (or even re-configured?) from Wexford to Waterford. Many people have said to me that the hospital is on a slippery slope and that its future is under threat.


Minster Sean Connick’s admission at the rally that he wouldn’t vote against downgrading of the hospital in the Dáil genuinely shocked a lot of people there. He also effectively hung his FF colleague Senator Lisa McDonald, who at least had the guts to speak in support of the hospital despite being barracked by a section of the crowd, out to dry. When I left I could see a lot of people, mostly women one or two of them people I would know to be FF voters lining up to grill Minister Connick for his complacent attitude to the retention of the hospital.