A Monaghan man has expressed his "frustration" over what he believes was the "lack of public representation" at a recent protest outside Monaghan Hospital. A national day of hospital protests took place across the country on January 21st, over the crisis in EDs. The day included demonstrations outside Our Lady's Hospital Navan, Monaghan Hospital, Cavan General Hospital , Regional Hospital Mullingar and Sligo University Hospital.
Paul from Monaghan said many politicians were elected with the mandate to do "all in their power" to support the restoration of full services at Monaghan Hospital, however he believes "not enough" of them as well as members of the public turned up.
While standing at the demonstration, Paul said he was reminded of the times his family "needed" and "benefited" from the very high standard of services provided by staff at the hospital. He added that the downgrading of services at Monaghan Hospital, was a decision that was taken out of the public's hands and is something that should never be forgot about.
Speaking to Northern Sound, Paul said that while the population of Monaghan is forever growing, he is concerned that the health infrastructure is not growing with it. "The population of Monaghan is just over 65,000 people now, so there was an increase of 5 per cent from 2016 to 2022. Moving forward, I just wonder will the system be ready for a potential increase of the Monaghan population to about 100,000 people in 2030," explained Paul.
