The HSE has been asked to provide information on where the €90,000 raised for St. Brigid’s Hospital in Carrick-on-Suir is.
This follows on from the meeting last week where representatives of the Health Service Executive for the region appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Public Petitions to defend and explain their decision to close the facility.
Local Sinn Féin representative Dean McGrath says the meeting proved that none of the decisions were evidence based with no engineer, or architect reports done on ‘structural concerns’, as well as their admission no costings were carried out.
He says that they have also requested more information on where the money raised by the community for St. Brigid’s is sitting.
“Currently with the €90,000 it’s an ongoing process and people might be looking for refunds or this that and the other. Wee, we said what is the process, ‘Oh it’s just an ongoing process’ we didn’t get any clarity on what exact process that they are going to, to either return the money to the community or procure something else for use of those funds. Because those funds were fundraised solely for the upkeep of St. Brigid’s hospital they are the property of the community and they are just floating in Never Never Land somewhere unfortunately according to the HSE.”
Members of the local campaign group are also demanding access to the minutes of the meetings where the decision to close St. Brigid’s were made.
Dean McGrath went on to say that their insistence on the facility not being fit for purpose is a phrase that has never been used by HIQA in their reports on St. Brigid’s and they are still hopeful their campaign will see services returned.
He told Tipp Today that their failure to get official reports and costings has led to more questions about what was discussed in their meetings.
“For us it is about getting more information, they were very helpful in many ways because they really showed us that what we were saying all along way that there is no way that there are reports to back up what they are saying there is no way there is an evidence base to support what they are saying, they didn’t have that, they still don’t have that. We want to see where these decision were made now so we are asking for minutes from these management meetings what was said, was there minutes, where were these decisions made, how were they come to, and what evidence did these people bring to these meetings in order to close this hospital?”
