Decisions on which hospitals will lose services when the next phase of the controversial Hanly report is rolled out across the State will not be made any time soon, the Department of Health admitted yesterday.
It emerged yesterday the Department has not renewed the contract of businessman Mr David Hanly, who 12 months ago was given the job of chairing a group responsible for deciding which hospitals got which services under Hanly II.
He had chaired the National Taskforce on Medical Staffing which produced the report commonly referred to as the Hanly report on hospital reorganisation in 2003. It proposed only larger hospitals have A&E units.
A spokesman for the Department said yesterday that the group responsible for drawing up Hanly II had been unable to function because consultants are boycotting the group in protest at the failure to resolve a long-running dispute over changes to their insurance cover. "Therefore the issue of a contract in relation to his [Mr Hanly's] work and that of the group would be on hold pending a re- solution of that issue."
Asked if Hanly II had effectively been abandoned, the spokesman stressed it had only been delayed.
The Irish Medical Times, which reported that Mr Hanly's contract had not been renewed yesterday, has surveyed consultants and GPs on what they believe will happen to the report. It found 90 per cent of consultants and GPs believe the report will be shelved.