The controversial launch of a HSE strategy which included the proposed downgrade of Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise is believed to have been cancelled.
“I welcome the reported cancellation today of Dr.Susan O’Reilly’s launch of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group Plan, scheduled for Thursday,” said Deputy Brian Stanley.
“This is the correct decision and the launch should never have been arranged while a final decision on Portlaoise Hospital is still pending from Health Minister Simon Harris,” he said.
“The spotlight now turns again on Minister Harris and he should now scrap the flawed plan without further delay,” the Sinn Féin TD said.
The launch of the publication was due to be held on Thursday at the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Centre in Dublin.
It emerged last week that invitations to this launch were being issued on the same day that Minister Harris was meeting the three TDs from Laois to outline that no final decision had been made by him on the proposed downgrade of services at the hospital.
Protest
Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee members were planning a protest at the launch, if it had gone ahead.
There were angry exchanges during yesterday’s Laois County Council meeting as political parties voiced their concerns about the pending launch on Thursday.
SEE ALSO – Dublin Hospital Group statement on Portlaoise Hospital ‘misleading’
