Yesterday, September 13, activist group ACT UP Dublin was informed of plans for the impending closure of two sexual health clinics in the Northeast. All clinical sexual health services at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda and Louth County Hospital Dundalk will be closed.
This closure comes during a nationwide increase in rates of HIV and STIs, as well as the current global public health emergency related to the monkeypox virus.
ACT UP Dublin have been made aware of the imminent closure of all clinical sexual health services in the North East
We DEMAND action to ensure full services delivered in North East & have written to @DonnellyStephen @FrankFeighan & RCSI hospital group
Press statement below pic.twitter.com/QgrZiGJmHP
— ACT UP Dublin (@ActUpDublin) September 13, 2022
ACT UP Dublin member Ellen Conlon commented on the closures, saying: “It is unthinkable to withdraw sexual health services from any area. Drogheda and Dundalk are two of the largest urban centres in the country and have a combined population of more than 80,000 people.”
Conlon also remarked on how the services in Dublin are already under strain. Now, those from the Northeast will have to travel to Dublin to avail of services there.
Dr John Gilmore, also a member of ACT UP Dublin, criticised the closures, saying: “Sexual health services are essential to ensure the wider health and well-being of the public. Everyone in the country has the right to adequate sexual health provision and it is unacceptable to see services close amid rising STI and HIV rates in Ireland.”
ACT UP Dublin has written to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and Minster Frank Feighan, as well as RCSI Hospital Group management in light of the closures. The organisation demanded positive action to resolve issues that led to the closure of services in the Northeast. They are also demanding full and immediate reopening of all clinical sexual health services.
The organisation was founded in 2016 to tackle Ireland’s HIV crisis. It is the local branch of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, which is an international activist organisation.
To learn more about ACT UP Dublin and the work that they do on behalf of the community, click here.
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