Áine Ryan
MAYO General Hospital could lose beds, doctors and important services due to the continued crises in HSE budgets and government coffers. That’s the view of campaigning medical doctor, former Independent TD, and new Labour Party recruit, Dr Jerry Cowley.
In an exclusive interview with The Mayo News, he has revealed his serious concerns about the gradual downgrading of the county’s health services, which could leave people from such isolated areas as the Mullet peninsula being forced to travel to Galway for late night A&E services.
The Mulranny based GP – who plans to fight the next General Election – said that since he left public office in 2007, the status and retention of health services in the county had gone right off the agenda.
“Nobody knows what will happen at Mayo General Hospital (MGH). At the moment the annual budget is around €85 million, reduced by €7m. While it has done well, according to recent Eurostat figures, in the management of beds, I believe it will struggle to provide services into the future,” Dr Cowley told The Mayo News.
“There is a big shortage of doctors with a resultant high dependance on foreign doctors who are not so inclined lately to take up positions due to resource issues. There will also be a closure of wards over the coming Summer months,” he continued.
“There was supposed to be money there for an extension to Oncology services, and the day wards. But that money has been absorbed into the HSE general budget. There is a real fear that MGH could have its A&E hours curtailed, they could close it from 10pm to 8am. After all, Ennis has already had its emergency service cut back.”
Dr Cowley stressed he was not being alarmist but his concerns had foundation, with the trend towards some services already redirected to Galway
“I’m saying all this is not outside the bounds of possibility with a shortage of income and doctors. My feeling is there will be more beds taken out of the system, just to save money” he further explained.
He argued that since he left politics, no public representatives in the county had talked about, for example, urology, HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Services), Ear, Nose and Throat services.
When Dr Cowley, who is also a barrister, attended the recent Labour Party conference, like ancient Greek mathematician, Archimedes, he had an epiphany, albeit political rather than mathematical.
“I had a Eureka moment when I attended the conference a couple of weeks back. I suddenly felt at home. The Labour Party is all about community and that’s what I’m about. If you lose community services, you lose community. It’s all about people – people before banks and profit,” Dr Cowley told The Mayo News.
It is very significant for Cowley that Labour was the first party to come up with the prospect of providing universal health insurance here.
“It breaks my heart that there is such health apartheid in this country. To me it is unacceptable that someone can die while waiting for an appointment. People should not die on a waiting list. To me, politics is all about putting people first, supporting older people and ensuring that we have a proper and fair health service,” Dr Cowley said.
Political phoenix
A longtime community activist, and founder of the Safe Home programme for elderly Irish emigrants, Jerry Cowley was the first TD to be elected in Mayo in 2002. Bonfires were lit all over west Mayo and Achill, as the Ballina native was swept to power with a resounding 8,709 first preference votes and 13.72 per cent of the vote. However, it was Michael Ring who actually topped that poll with 9,880 first preferences and 15.56 per cent of the vote.
Five years later, however, the results were dramatically different. Eliminated after the sixth count, Cowley only achieved 3,407 first preference votes.
Now, having dramatically risen from the ashes of his one-term stint in Dáil Éireann, he concedes he was disappointed by his defeat in June 2007 but ‘took it in good stead’.
“The people had made their decision and I am a democrat. I had expected to do another five years in Dáil Éireann. But as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men …”
He revealed though that there was ‘a silver lining to the cloud’ with more time for his general medical practise and his children, who were still in school.
In the interim, he also busied himself with his many voluntary commitments.
“I never burned my election poster. And then on February 13 last, the day before St Valentine’s Day, I got a phone call from the Labour Party HQ asking me was I available to meet. I didn’t even ask why. Because I knew what they were going to ask me,” Jerry Cowley said.
Despite approaches by all the major parties in the past – Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and even the PDs – Dr Cowley has never before been a member of a political party.
