This article is from page 2 of the 2008-05-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
to clarify that the hospital did not receive any donations from 2003 to 2007, or if it simply did not record donations, a HSE spokesperson said the hospital had no record of any do- nations made during that time.
“But this does not rule out the pos- sibility of somebody coming in to
buy a box of chocolates for patients in a particular ward.”
Chairman of the Ennis General Hospital Development Committee, Ciaran O’Dea said that “despite the expected flippancy and condescen- sion evident from the HSE response”, the survey carried out under the Free- dom of Information Act poses more questions.
“If there have been no donations, it indicates the distrust that people feel with the HSE or a dissatisfaction with the level of service and resourc- es provided under the HSE. The issue may also point to a belief and dissat- isfaction with the over-distribution of funds to administration as opposed
to front-line staff and services. Both these possibilities are a result of the removal and lack of answerability of the HSE to the electorate,” he said.
‘A second possibility is that unre- corded donations have been made to support the hospital. This scenario beggars belief given the massive in- crease in expenditure on administra- tion. It is time to ask if the HSE is ‘value for money’ and to test whether they cost more than they benefit the people of County Clare and beyond,” the committee chairman added.
It remains unclear whether any do- nations have been made to the hospi- tal since 2003.
In the past, the people of Clare fun-
draised for a mammography unit for the hospital, which was later replaced by the health board and eventually closed by the HSE in favour of the centre of excellence in Limerick.
The Mid-Western Hospitals De- velopment Trust also agreed to pro- vide €600,000 to purchase the much needed CAT scanner, although the HSE has not yet taken the trust up on its proposal. The machine is estimat- ed to cost just over €400,000.
In February 2007, Deputy Pat Breen (FG) was told in a parliamen- tary question that €550,000 per an- num revenue funding has been pro- vided for running the CT service at the hospital.