Having been a member of Laois County Board and chairman of Portlaoise GAA Club, John Hanniffy is taking on his biggest challenge yet, secretary of the committee to Save Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise.
“I got roped into it,” he joked when he sat down with LaoisToday last week.
It was quickly clear that this is personal issue with the business consultant and former banker.
He said he is very aware of the importance of the hospital in Portlaoise as he would have been in and out of it over the years.
“My dad was a doctor in St Fintan’s Hospital so I was well aware of the medical side of things and remember the impact when services were removed from the hospital and brought to Tullamore in the ‘80s,” he said.
In his work as a consultant, and formerly in the banking sector, John said he has seen the damage done around the country through hospital downgrades in Roscommon, Cavan and Monaghan.
John’s family are originally from Ballinasloe and so they are aware first hand of the loss that St Brigid’s Hospital was to the town there.
This building is lying idle and is now a dilapidated eyesore.
It is the committee secretary’s own brush with death which brought home to him just how important it is to have a hospital nearby.
Heart attack
The local hospital is probably the reason he is still alive today, following a heart attack in 2013.
On that day, he had been in the Maldron Hotel and suddenly felt very sick.
“I stood up to go and suddenly I felt very unwell. It was as if someone had put two pipes of water to my neck,” he recalled.
John originally thought it was a bout of indigestion and managed to drive home.
He rang his dad and was able to get advice from him.
In the meantime, his father rang the hospital to see if a consultant was on duty, otherwise he would have been on the way to a hospital in Dublin.
However, John believes if the hospital had not been closeby, he would have taken a chance and waited to see if he felt better the next day.
“I was very fortunate that my father was able to help me. My symptoms were beginning to calm down but because I was so close to the hospital I went in.
“If someone had said to me, you have to go to Tallaght, then I probably would have waited and thought it was not worth the hassle,” he explained.
With hospital downgrades around the country, Mr Hanniffy said many people are may have taken a wrong choice and then died at home, and are now just statistics.
Suffer
“The reason I got involved is because I wouldn’t like my kids, or my wife, or my family to suffer because of a removal of services,” he said.
“I don’t want members of my family and people to suffer because I did nothing about this,” Mr Hanniffy said.
“No-one has died because they went to Portlaoise hospital,” he said.
However, he did acknowledge the terrible hurt suffered by families whose babies died at the hospital in Portlaoise, which eventually led to the reports on the hospital, the latest of which is the one from Dr Susan O’Reilly.
In emergency situations the first ‘golden’ hour is critical to survival – a factor which will have even greater significance for Laois if A&E services are removed from the hospital.
While it is cited that several hospitals are within an hour of Portlaoise, this is only if you leave immediately, and don’t encounter heavy traffic.
“You can be left waiting on an ambulance which could be coming from as far away as Baltinglass,” Mr Hanniffy said.
The hospital action committee strongly rejects the leaked report on future services at Portlaoise hospital by Dr Susan O’Reilly.
“The report wasn’t independently carried out,” John said.
Agenda
“The report came out of a basic enquiry which suggested a review. This was hijacked for an agenda of budgeting and reconfiguration,” he said.
He also said an alternative plan from the local GPs and consultants has not been considered.
Once services have been secured at the hospital, he believes a budgets, and also use of resources at the hospital should be properly looked at.
Mr Hanniffy, who was a long-time hurling goalkeeper for Portlaoise and Laois, believes more funding is required for Portlaoise, along with greater efficiencies in the HSE.
“I would much prefer to hand the responsibility of running the hospital over to Michael O’Leary rather than Dr Susan O’Reilly,” Mr Hanniffy said.
He does not believe the bringing more patients to the capital is the answer, though.
Rather than centralising further services to Dublin, it would be “handier to divert procedures to Portlaoise, where we have a fully functioning hospital,” Mr Hanniffy said.
Portlaoise also has a much bigger catchment area, than for example Tullamore, he said.
The hospital can cater for a wide region including Kilkenny, Carlow, Limerick, Kildare, Tipperary and almost all the way to Cork city, due to motorways it is served by, the committee has stressed.
In their efforts to avoid a downgrade of services at the hospital, the action committee has been holding a series of public meetings around the county.
March
Next up is a march and candlelight vigil in Portlaoise on December 2nd, which it is hoped will be attended by thousands.
“We are going to have a regional march, and gauge the mood after that,” he said.
Plans have been put in place to provide parking on all main approach roads to maximise the attendance.
The 5 pm time on a Saturday was chosen to minimise disruption in the town, and also allow people to attend after they have finished work or weekend shopping.
“We are hoping that everyone will converge and arrive around the one time at 6pm,” he said.
“We hope a few thousand can make it in,” he said.
Protests may also take place in key locations including the Department of Agriculture and the prisons in Portlaoise at a later stage.
The committee has received “unequivocal” support from all the local TDs.
They also believe Minister for Health Simon Harris’s statements on the issue have been reasonable and are reassured somewhat by the fact that he hasn’t signed off on the report.
“We will bring maximum pressure to bear on Minister Harris. There is no reason to believe that he will reject the report in its entirety,” he said.
Should there be an adverse decision on the future of the hospital, then it is hoped that local TDs will resign and trigger a by-election.
“It will then become a general election issue,” he said.
The committee has also discussed running a candidate in an election, “but we are not at that stage yet,” John said.
This could move on much quicker though, with the possibility of a general election looming in December.
Not only do they want to ensure that full services, including Accident & Emergency are retained in Portlaoise, they also want to ensure that it is properly funded into the future.
“We don’t want it closed by stealth,” Mr Hanniffy said.
With Minister Charlie Flanagan in cabinet, Mr Hanniffy believes he could play a key role in retention of key services at the hospital, particularly the A&E.
“Charlie has an opportunity to leave a legacy for the people of Laois from the Flanagan dynasty after 50 or 60 years,” Mr Hanniffy said.
