The future of local hospitals has to be made a national issue if the Government is to take any real notice of the concerns of those affected, a new campaign has insisted.

The National Hospital Campaign held its first meeting at the weekend to flesh out plans for the coming months. The meeting was called by Independent Meath West TD, Peadar Tóibín, who is already the chairperson of the Save Navan Hospital Campaign.

"We have seen lots of cutbacks in our hospital, but when surgery services were closed in 2010, thousands of people marched about the issue and the Government decided to review this decision. Following this, surgery services returned, although not to the same extent," Mr Tóibín explained.

He pointed out that the government is also planning to close the A&E in Navan by the end of 2014, something that the people in the area ‘will not let happen'.

"Patients would then be expected to travel to Dublin or Drogheda. Fine Gael promised a new regional hospital for Navan by 2016, but there is no sign of this so far," he noted.

With many hospitals around the country facing, or having already undergone, similar closures and downgrades, Mr Tóibín said that he realised that if this is to be taken seriously by the Government, it needs to become a national issue, rather than a local one.

"The only way to fight it is on a national basis. This puts the Government under pressure. It's like the pylon issue. This was a local issue, but then it became national and now the Government is under pressure to act," he explained.

At last weekend's meeting, representatives from seven local hospital campaigns attended, including Bantry General, Roscommon General and Monaghan General. A further eight local campaigns have since made contact to pledge their support.

"That is 15 local groups, which are each capable of getting three to five thousand people marching in support of their hospitals," Mr Tóibín noted.

However, the National Hospital Campaign is not just stopping at hospital services. It plans to focus on other issues, such as late ambulance arrivals, ‘a major issue in Meath at the moment', discretionary medical cards and the always contentious issue of funding.

The campaign aims to hold a national day of action in April, which will see people attending marches in at least 10 sites around the country.

Mr Tóibín insisted that people are well aware that ‘there cannot be a hospital on every crossroads' and that certain hospitals need to deal with certain specialties. However, he said that the loss of services can have a major negative impact on patients and hospitals overall.

For example, when Monaghan General's A&E closed, the number of patients waiting on trolleys in Cavan General's A&E ‘tripled over the next two years'. Is this benefitting patients, he asked.

"We are sending a clear marker to Government that it is not dealing with isolated hospital campaigns anymore - this is a national issue."

The National Hospital Campaign is in the process of setting up a Facebook page and Twitter account - these should be live in the coming days. In the meantime, if anyone is interested in learning more or getting involved with the campaign, they can contact Mr Tóibín on 087 270 7985.