Demand for better hospitalp services

A DEMONSTRATION that is to be held at the end of the month to demand better facilities in tthe West Kerry Community Hospital in Dingle will provide a platform for Dingle man Robert Brosnan ( pictured left) to kickstart his campaign to win a council seat for Sinn Féin in nnext year’s local elections.

Robert, who is from Cooleen, and now lives in Goulane Thoir, was selected as the Sinn Féin local election candidate at a convention held in Lios Póil last week. He aims to make healthcare one of the cornerstones of his campaign and two issues he plans to focus on are mental health services for young people and the need for an x-ray facility in West Kerry Community Hospital, which he regards as being under-utilised.

Robert told The Kerryman this week that he believes the hospital could provide better outreach services, in particular an x-ray unit operating two or three days a week which would save a great many unnecessary trips to the emergency department in University Hospital Kerry in Tralee.

He also thinks the Dingle hospital should be the centre of improved mental health services for young people who are “the future of our country but they’re getting no support”.

The demonstration to demand better services at West Kerry Community Hospital will be held at 12 noon on Saturday, December 29.

Robert, who is a self-employed plumber, has been a member of Sinn Féin for over 10 years and this is his first time contesting an election for the party. “It’ll be daunting enough… I’m hopeful, but not hugely confident, but I’ll do my best,” he says of the forthcoming campaign in which the competition will include two other Dingle men - sitting Fine Gael councillor Seamus Cosaí Fitzgerald and Fianna Fáil candidate Breandán Fitzgerald who will be contesting his second local elections, having missed out on a seat in 2014.