All must stand firm in support of hospital

The emergency meeting of local authorities from Westmeath and Longford held on Monday in Mullingar demonstrated what is already clear to most people: at local level, no-one has any power over the future of the hospital in Mullingar.Last week's shock revelation that sixteen beds are to be closed, and that staff are to be laid off, comes hot on the heels of an admission made by Professor Brendan Drumm, head of the HSE, that it might not be feasible to continue to have full A&E services on a full-time basis at all three midland hospitals.The HSE said last week that there wasn't anything out of the ordinary about the closure of a ward at the hospital, and insisted it was a temporary measure.But with jobs on the line, questionmarks over services, and a massive hole in the Government's finances, there are major fears that Mullingar's hospital is coming under attack, and that all the focus, and all the finance, will go to the new hospital in Tullamore, despite the fact that Mullingar has long out-performed Tullamore.Staff at the hospital, told that one of the nurses to go was to be from the maternity ward, are worried about the future of maternity services in Mullingar. Meanwhile, a local committee has been set up to collect the money required to upgrade the catscan at the hospital.The scandal of the extension of the hospital, a saga going back over a decade, and still not finished, is an indication of how high on the list of priorities Mullingar's hospital is, and despite all that, the staff battle on, attaining the highest of standards, and coming tops each year on the list for efficiency, and battling to extend the services they offer to the public.It is time that the Department of Health stood up and declared what's ahead for Mullingar Hospital, and it is time that the people of Mullingar, and of Westmeath generally, and of Longford, stood up and declared that there must be a commitment to this hospital, vital, given the enormous swathe of area that it services.While the political will is there at local level to secure and advance the hospital in Mullingar, as was clear from Monday's joint councils meeting, it is also clear that all the decision-making regarding health services in the midlands is going to be made higher up the ladder, and is going to be made purely by looking at maps and debit sheets.It's this sort of decision making that landed Westmeath into the North West consitituency for the recent European elections - alongside counties as far away as Donegal. Can you name your MEP? Can you remember who we elected? Can you remember any visits to the area since June by Marian Harkin, Jim Higgins (FG) or Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher (FF)? If you do happen to see them, remind them where we are. And explain why we need a decent hospital.