Calls for Longford medical hub

Longford Councillor Martin Monaghan (pictured) has called on the Minister for Health to “make Longford a priority” as he expressed the fear that his home county may never have its own hospital.

Cllr Monaghan said, “Sadly I personally don’t think we are ever going to have a hospital in Longford, but I do think what we need are ‘satellite hubs’. I heard this week that the government is going to open up new hospitals in Connolly, Crumlin, Cork and Limerick - why not Longford? We are slap bang in the middle of the midlands.

We have St Joseph’s out on the Dublin Road and they are spending some money on it now but I think they need to do what they’ve done in Roscommon - they have a fabulous A&E Department there and I am confident we can reproduce that here.”
Cllr Monaghan said the current situation in St Joseph’s was “grossly inadequate” and “could be greatly improved upon.”

He concluded, “You go to MIDOC now and ninety per cent of the time you’re going to be referred to Mullingar. I believe the medics should be able to treat you here, obviously not with everything but I think that the assessment process could start here and it would subsequently successfully help eliminate the constant pressure on Mullingar which is horrendous.”