THE OPENING of a new €4.7 million emergency department at Cork's Mercy University Hospital (MUH) looks set to be deferred again, even though hospital management has not yet ruled out opening the facility before the end of the year.
According to an MUH spokesman, plans to open the new emergency department this month, as suggested by the HSE, are "too optimistic" and discussions are ongoing with the HSE to try to make up a shortfall in funding which would allow the hospital open the new facility.
HSE Southern Hospitals group hospital network manager, Gerry O'Dwyer, told the HSE South Regional Health Forum in May that the HSE was still in discussions with management at MUH and recruitment had commenced for qualified nurses to staff the new unit.
"The projected opening date for the new unit is in late July 2008 and the aspiration is that the unit will open on a 24/7 basis at that stage," said Mr O'Dwyer, adding that the commissioning groups had been established to plan the move to the new unit.
But an MUH spokesman said this week that the HSE's aspirational opening date of late July was not going to be met, although hospital management were still endeavouring to ensure the new facility would open before the end of the year.
MUH management has already implemented a series of cutbacks at the hospital including cutting planned surgery and outpatient clinics from five days a week to four days a week for the rest of the year, as they try to meet a projected shortfall in HSE funding of €4.6 million.
In April, MUH chief executive Pat Madden announced "with regret" that the hospital would not be able to open the new facility on a 24/7 basis as a result of the projected shortfall in HSE funding, and would instead open on a part-time basis from 8am to 8pm.
That led to an intensification of talks with the HSE in a bid to resolve the ongoing dispute over staffing levels, with the MUH arguing that it needed an extra 25 staff to open the new 750sq m facility, which was completed in March 2007, to replace the existing 209sq m unit.
However, the HSE has said that when original approval was given for the facility, MUH sought an additional revenue allocation of €400,000 but when building work finished in January 2007, MUH requested €1.497 million to staff the new facility.
Mr O'Dwyer said in May that initial expectations that there would be a surge of attendances at the new emergency department were incorrect, and it was now expected the new emergency department would handle the same number of attendances as the old unit - 25,000 attendances.
However, an MUH spokesman told The Irish Times that it would still be impossible to run the new emergency department with the same amount of staff as operated the old unit because of its very different layout and configuration.
"Even with a patient throughput equal to that of the old A&E it is broadly agreed by the HSE that the new A&E will cost more to run and will require more staffing, as it is larger and has more observation and treatment centres," he said.
According to one hospital source, the impact of the recent cutbacks at MUH is having such an effect on staff that they are focusing simply on maintaining services and no one at the hospital expects the new emergency department to open this year.
Socialist Party Cllr Mick Barry strongly criticised the delay in opening the new emergency department and said the responsibility rested with the Government. "It's a real scandal that a new accident and emergency department costing €5 million of taxpayers' money is now lying idle for a year and a half and counting due to Government cutbacks in funding for the health service," said Cllr Barry.