Clinical review at Mullingar hospital

A review is to be carried out into some clinical procedures performed at the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar.

A review is to be carried out into some clinical procedures performed at the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar.

The Irish Times has learned the review was sought by the Health Service Executive (HSE) after concerns were raised by some staff at the hospital.

It is understood the review is to be carried out by a professional peer review body which has said it was "not in a position to comment on that at this stage".

The HSE Midlands Area confirmed however that "a performance concern" had been raised at the hospital.

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In a short statement it said: "A performance concern has been raised at the Midland Regional Hospital at Mullingar. The matter is being reviewed as part of the hospital's risk management process."

It added: "Under our quality assurance and risk management systems, it is our policy to treat any expression of concern about clinical performance in a manner that ensures that we are satisfied patients are not at risk because of the performance safety concerns raised, and if so that we deal with this immediately to ensure patient safety."

It also said it was its policy to ensure that those who reported their concerns "are satisfied that they were taken seriously and treated expeditiously and appropriately" and that "any implicated healthcare professionals are satisfied that they are treated reasonably and impartially in a supportive manner in all aspects of the process".

It claimed the robustness of its hospital risk management process allowed "this matter to come to our attention in the first instance".

The review comes just weeks after a the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) carried out a separate review of the outcomes of 20 cases at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan.

The RCSI was asked to carry out that review after the HSE North East Area received a risk management report on general surgical services at the hospital which recommended an urgent review of the types of surgery carried out at the hospital in order to assess which procedures were being undertaken too infrequently to maintain competence, and to assess the quality of clinical management in named and random cases.

As a result of the RCSI review the HSE placed restrictions on the type of surgery which can now take place at Navan hospital. All upper gastrointestinal surgery must now be referred elsewhere, usually to Dublin hospitals.

In addition, an external head of the hospital's surgery department has been appointed.

He is Prof David Bouchier-Hayes, who retired from the RCSI some time ago.

Meanwhile it has emerged that a delegation from the Medical Council visited Navan Hospital yesterday.

It was invited by the HSE's north east hospital network manager Chris Lyons to inspect the hospital to assess its suitability for the training of surgical interns and to make any recommendations it deemed necessary.

And in a separate development a meeting of Drogheda Borough Council last night discussed making a submission to the group appointed by the HSE to review acute hospital services in the north east region.

Members of the borough council want to see any new hospital provided for the region, as recommended in the Harding Clark report, located in Drogheda. The report said: "The time has come for the planners of the health needs of the north eastern region to provide a centrally located new hospital . . . perhaps the project design team will consider locating the proposed new regional hospital in a green field site equidistant from the major towns in the region."