The HSE is under fire for restricting hospital transport services which has had a huge impact on elderly, disabled and rural patients across Tipperary.
The move has left them stranded and without access to essential medical care.
The cutbacks mean that many patients without transport – including those with heart conditions, neurological disorders, and mobility impairments — are being left to fend for themselves.
Cashel based Independent County Councillor Liam Browne says there’s been an avalanche of cuts hitting Tipperary in particular.
“It started coming to me in dribs and drabs – people coming saying the transport had been cut from them an I wasn’t sure if it was maybe something to do with them personally. Then I was getting a second, a third, a fourth so I decided to start digging into it. And I have found that people in Tipperary seem to be adversely effected over patients in Carlow, Waterford, Kilkenny.
“So if that’s the truth to be quite honest I think heads should roll in Tipperary University Hospital whoever made that decision because patients in Tipperary have just as much right to the full range of HSE services as any patient anywhere else in the country.”
Councillor Browne wants clarification on who made the decision to cut back hospital transport services in the area.
“I have asked them on a number of occasions to actually give me the criteria and who put the criteria together. I think one of the most important criteria in any decision is the medical condition.
“And I wanted to know were medical practitioners involved in making this decision or is it just accountants moving people around on a spreadsheet and deciding they could save money from this bus or save money from that service.
“I have more than a dozen cases in the Cashel area – if there’s that many in the Cashel then they’re in Clonmel, Tipperary Town and rural communities.”
