Varadkar insists Portlaoise hospital is not being downgraded

Complex surgical procedures are to be moved out of the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise and the opening hours of its emergency department are expected to be reduced.

However, Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said the hospital was not being downgraded and the changes were not being made for financial reasons.

Dr Susan O’Reilly, chief executive of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, said the move to no longer carry out complex surgery at Portlaoise had come following concerns raised in a Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report and two internal reports.

Portlaoise has been the subject of controversy since it emerged last year that five babies died after being delivered in the hospital.

Dr O’Reilly said complex surgeries, including emergency and elective surgery, would be relocated “quite soon”.

Portlaoise would “be offering a range of simple fracture repairs but anything needing admission is best treated elsewhere,” she said.

Complex surgery, including bowel surgery, will be transferred to St James’s Hospital in Dublin or the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore.

A HSE statement said the process might impact on Portlaoise’s emergency department’s overnight opening hours but did not confirm if the new opening times would be from 8am-8pm.

Dr O’Reilly told RTÉ that radio reports thatmaternity services would be downgraded were “nonsense”.

She said about 2,000 babies were born each year in Portlaoise l and would continue to be born there. “There has been a substantial investment in maternity services. We are investing in and growing our services in Portlaoise - 16 new permanent midwives have been taken on since last year,” she said.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) general secretary Liam Doran said before any services were relocated, the ability of the receiving hospital in terms of staffing and bed capacity needed to be examined.

Mr Doran said the hospitals in Tullamore and Tallaght, and St. James’s hospital in Dublin, already faced overcrowding and severe staff shortages every day.

“Simply to curtail a service in Portlaoise, and to relocate it into already overcrowded hospitals, is not a cogent, coherent or acceptable solution. Extra bed capacity, together with the additional staff required, must be in place before any service reconfiguration can take place.”

The union has sought an immediate meeting with Dr O’Reilly to discuss the changes.

Mr Varadkar said the changes at Portlaoise were being made for patient safety and not for financial reasons.

“Any change to its services will be undertaken in a planned and orderly manner ...this will take account of existing patient numbers, demands in other hospitals and the need to develop services at Portlaoise,” he said.

“She(Dr O’Reilly) has made it clear that maternity, acute medical and paediatric services will continue, and that elective day surgery is likely to be expanded.

“Following concerns raised by Hiqa over the potentially unsafe low volume of complex operations carried out at the hospital, the hospital group has decided to move complex surgery to bigger centres.”

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan, who is a local TD, said his priority was for patient safety.

“It is essential that as well as considering reports, Dr O’Reilly listens carefully to the views of patients and staff and is alert to the healthcare needs of people in the hospital’s catchment area,” he said.

Sinn Féin health spokesman TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the loss of services was not the answer to Portlaoise hospital’s problems.

“It could yet prove to be the slippery slope that leads to the removal of other services from Portlaoise and a significant downgrading of the hospital,” he said.

“If these changes proceed, I have no doubt but that they will be replicated at other hospital sites across the country.”