An Ireland South European Election candidate has questioned the timing of the announcement of a HIQA review into the case for a second A&E in the Mid-West.
Michael McNamara was questioning Minister Stephen Donnelly during a Health Committee meeting in Leinster House.
The Independent TD from Clare asked if the call for the review was politically motivated.
“People might be cynical that this was called in the run-in to elections and maybe the General Election might come and go before the review is delivered and actioned – if its ever actioned. I mean there’s a lot of reviews in the Department of Health over the years Minister. I’d say they probably wouldn’t all fit in the building – there must be a very big vault. So when is this review – when are they going to report?”
The Health Minister denied that the HIQA review was being conducted to gain support ahead of the election saying it was driven totally by the spiralling trolley figures at University Hospital Limerick.
“I understand why you might make the point – I might well make the point myself if I was sitting where you are. I can tell you clearly the reason that I have asked HIQA to do this is is what has happened in the hospital in the first four months of this year. So if we go back to last year when we looked at UHL the waiting lists were falling rapidly and the number of patients on trolleys was falling – now come to this year UHL has had a 40% increase and it’s in response to this years increase that I’ve asked HIQA to do this review.”
