THE CENTRALISATION of acute hospital services is not a solution to the State’s health services difficulties and is a “dangerous and irresponsible” policy, it was claimed last night.
The comments were made during a public debate held at Limerick Institute of Technology at the third in the 2009 Pfizer Health Debates Series in association with The Irish Times.
The debate on the motion, “That this house believes that centralising acute hospital services is in the interest of patient safety”, was opposed by a small majority of the more than 200 attendees.
Against the motion, Dr Michael Harty, a Co Clare GP and co-chairman of the Clare-North Tipperary GP Action Committee, described the centralisation of acute services in the midwest as “scandalous and simplistic”.
The reconfiguration of services in the midwest was implemented last month and formed part of a HSE report, which recommended that the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick become the only hospital in the region with a 24-hour accident and emergency department.
One of the most controversial aspects of the centralisation programme locally was the loss of 24-hour AE services at Nenagh and Ennis general hospitals.
“This a scandalous and simplistic way to deliver acute care especially in peripheral areas like Clare and north Tipperary,” argued Dr Harty. “It places patients at unacceptable distances from acute life-saving medical care and forces people to travel unnecessarily to an already overworked and overwhelmed central hospital in Limerick.”
He described centralisation as a “national policy” and said Bantry, Mallow and Tralee hospitals were next in line for “downgrading and eventual closure”.
He said Wexford and Ballinasloe should pay attention to what was taking place in Monaghan, Cavan, Navan and Louth as services were centralised in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda.
Paul Burke, consultant vascular surgeon and chairman of the Reconfiguration Project Board, HSE West, said in favour of the motion that centralisation of services did “not mean closing local hospitals or taking away services, but merely changing the way” these services were delivered.
“We should think of our acute service throughout the [midwest] region as one large hospital and three smaller ones feeding into it,” said Dr Burke.
According to Dr Burke, since April 6th last, when centralisation of services was introduced in the midwest, there had been an increase of four patients attending the Limerick AE department.
Also in support of last night’s motion was Dr Cathal O’Donnell, consultant in emergency medicine at Mid-Western regional hospitals in Limerick and Ennis.
Cardiac surgeon and Irish Times columnist Maurice Neligan spoke against the motion. The debate was chaired by Irish Timesjournalist Fintan O'Toole.