FORMER Labour TD Dr Moosajee Bhamjee has been asked to return to politics in an attempt to save Ennis hospital from closure following a damning report into the quality and safety of services at the hospital.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report found that it is unsafe to provide acute surgery, intensive care, round-the-clock emergency care, maternity and paediatric care at the hospital.

Bhamjee, a practicing psychiatrist at the hospital, said this weekend that people all over Clare have asked him to return to politics, but he has declined the request.

"People throughout the county are asking me to return to politics and make the changes for Ennis hospital but I believe there is nothing any politician can do so I will not be going back into politics," he said.

"It is HSE and Department of Health policy to downgrade Ennis. It is a dictatorship from the top and democratic values have gone out the window, as nobody is listening to voters' views."

The HIQA report was ordered by health minister Mary Harney last September after the Sunday Tribune revealed 26-year-old mother of two Edel Kelly died from cancer after a second misdiagnosis at the hospital. It came just weeks after the death of Ann Moriarty from a similar misdiagnosis.

Bhamjee criticised the HIQA report for not investigating the cancer deaths and said it "was only a new means to justify the closing of Ennis general".

Eugene O'Kelly, the solicitor for the late Edel Kelly's family, will initiate a High Court action against the HSE for medical malpractice in the coming weeks and said "there is nothing of comfort for the Kellys" in the HIQA report . The family "feel that their tragedy has been hijacked for a political purpose", he said.