Local campaign groups feel the Taoiseach left conflicting messages around healthcare in the Mid-West during his visit to UHL.
On Friday Leo Varadkar was at the hospital which serves North Tipp, Limerick and Clare, and stated that reopening Nenagh, Ennis, and St. John’s A and Es was ‘impossible’.
However, member of the Nenagh Needs it’s A and E group Conor Reidy was involved in a private meeting with the Taoiseach shortly after this statement and said nothing had been ruled out.
Speaking to Tipp Today Conor said he was left unsure as to where Leo Varadkar stands and which grouping was told the truth :
“Is he telling us what we want to here, there is possibly a big element of that. Is he giving the real picture to public via the media, earlier on. We were confronted with a lot more reports before we started out press briefing I outlined it just as I outlined it to you that he said he never definitively rules anything in or out and everything has to stay on the table and their heads just started to shake and they looked at each other through their hands and said that he has just sad the exact opposite to us.”
Conor went on to discuss comments by the Taoiseach on re-opening one A and E in the Med-West region stating would be a start.
“He said well you know it would be a massive big ask to reopen up three A and Es how would you feel about one and if it was one which one would we reopen? Our response was we are the Mid-West Hospital Campaign we are made up of Limerick, Nenagh and Ennis and yes each branch of the campaign is going to lobby and fight to have it’s A and E reopened but at the end of the day one would be a massive start because what that would do is unplug a world of pressure from UHL immediately.”
