A&E shutdown suggestion ‘daft and unacceptable’
Labour T.D. Brendan Howlin has described as ‘daft and unaccaptable’ a suggestion from the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine that eight A&E departments in the country, including Wexford General Hospital, that don’t have 24hour consultancy cover, should cease operating.
The difference of opinion follows a recommendation by a Dublin Coroner, at an inquest into the death last year of a man who presented at the emergency department in Wexford and experienced a long delay in accessing a CT scan as there was not a consultant available to authorise it.
The Coroner recommended that all emergency departments should have 24-hour cover by consultants in emergency medicine to ‘prevent future deaths’.
However, the IAEM said there are too many emergency departments in the country and the eight hospitals that don’t have 24-hour consultant cover should cease operating as A&E departments.
The emergency department at Wexford General Hospital is among the services that would be affected by such a move, along with Kilkenny, Mullingar and Portlaoise.
‘ That is a daft and unacceptable response. It’s like saying, we don’t have a dual carriagway from Oyglegate to Rosslare so we should close the road altogether’. said Deputy Howlin.
‘What we need is for 24-hour cover to be provided at the departments that don’t currently have it. The eight hospitals should be provided with sufficient consultants in the A&E departments to operate 24/7.’
‘In the interim, non-consultant hospital doctors should be authorised to sanction scans when appropriate’, he said.
‘I find that the people who support the consolidation and closure of A&E departments are those who themselves only live half an hour from one’, he added.
PEOPLE throughout Enniscorthy have expressed anger at an apparent act of vandalism on Vinegar Hill - one of the most historically significant sites in the county.
Cllr Aidan Browne spoke to this newspaper about the issue and said ‘it’s a disgrace that someone would do it to such an important site’.
It appears that sometime on Sunday, December 5, quads were used to create deep tracks in the grass and earth close to the iconic tower ruins located at the top of the hill.
‘It’s a national battle site and is regularly used by walkers,’ said Cllr Browne.
‘A lot of local people walk up there but an awful lot of visitors go there too because of the historical significance of the site,’ he added.
‘ To tear it up in the way it was done is outrageous.’
One of the most significant sites in the county the hill is indelibly linked with the 1798 Rebellion and was the site if an intense and bloody battle that is regularly commemorated.
‘Children are brought up there and taught about the history associated with it that’s part of the history of our county,’ said Cllr Browne.
‘We have to get the vandals responsible for doing this,’ he added.
Cllr Browne said the local authority might have to go down the road of installing CCTV monitoring of the site but added that taking measures to ensure it doesn’t become a regular occurrence is even more important.
‘We also need to educate young people as to the significance of the hill,’ he said.
‘ This is one of the main tourist attractions in Enniscorthy if not the county,’ added Cllr Browne.
While the grass where the damage occurred is beginning to show signs of improvement Cllr Browne said it doesn’t take away from the fact that it should never have occurred in the first place.
‘We have to make sure this does not happen again,’ he said.
Whoever was responsible for the damage tried to make ‘doughnuts’ in the grass and in doing so cut deep tracks into the ground.
Cllr Browne confirmed that he spoke to the gardai about the incident and that it is being investigated.
‘We have to find out who is responsible and make sure it doesn’t happen again,’ he said.
Deputy James Browne also criticised those responsible and in an online post described it as ‘an outrageous act of vandalism’.
He also wrote to the gardai about the matter and both he and Cllr Browne contacted the local authority in Enniscorthy.