With over 2000 signatures on their petition and hundreds expected at a protest meeting on Sunday May 5th, the Friends of Ennis Hospital/Shannondoc Group say their message is simple, ‘we are NOT going away.’
Supporters of Nenagh General Hospital will hold a protest on Friday 3rd of May, which will also be attended by members from the Ennis group. There is also a protest planned for 1pm on Saturday 4th of May at City Hall limerick in relation to their ongoing crisis in UHL.
A spokesperson for the group said: “We have several speakers lined up for Sunday who have personal experience of the horrors of UHL’s emergency department. We will also be reading into the public record a list of the Local Election Candidates who have refused to sign our candidate pledge as well as naming those who signed up to support our aims.”
“An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar went so far as to state on Clare FM radio that the treatment for cardiac patients in UHL is far superior to that which patients in Ennis received 20 years ago, this is a blatant lie and one which we do not accept. The Fine Gael/HSE Spin machine can not erase the truth,” the spokesperson said.
“20 years ago, Ennis hospital had a fully functioning A&E a fully functioning ICU and a complete Cardiac Care Unit. It is ironic that as a medical doctor our Taoiseach does not understand the medical treatments that were available in Ennis in 1999 and it was not a case of giving someone an aspirin and sending them home to die,” they added.
“UL Hospitals group have recently issued a statement where it noted its “disappointment” with what it termed “unfair and inaccurate commentary” about the hospital in Limerick.
Whatever their disappointment is, it pales in comparison to the despair of people forced to attend the ED in Dooradoyle!
Whatever their opinion on the hospital we would argue that our comments are neither unfair nor inaccurate and that hiding behind closed doors issuing statements asking people not to talk negatively about limerick is helping no one,” the spokesperson said.
“We call on our TD’s our Minister for Health and our Taoiseach to make an unannounced visit to UHL to see first-hand the chaos and conditions therein. To visit the hospital without it turning into a PR exercise with press photographers waiting on every word. To see the patients on trolleys in situ in the ED instead of being shoved on trolleys down corridors beside the morgue and other areas of the hospital where visitors rarely stray, thereby leaving patients out of sight and out of mind,” the statement added.