Waterford hospital consultants question reduced risk score

Medical consultants at University Hospital Waterford (UHW) have called on the HSE to explain why the risk assessment attached to cardiac services in the hospital was reduced weeks before an official report recommended a downgrading of services.

The medical board in the hospital say they are “appalled” a decision was taken at hospital group level to reduce the risk relating to cardiology services in Waterford and the absence of a second catheterisation lab to treat heart attack patients.

HSE officials in the South/South-West hospital group changed the risk posed to patients by the lack of cardiac facilities at University Hospital Waterford in late August, The Irish Times reported on Saturday.

The rating, which stood at 20 on a scale reaching 25 for the previous three years, was changed to 16.

The HSE has said the risk rating for cardiology in Waterford has not been changed. This is a reference to a risk maintained inhouse at UHW. However, the equivalent entry in the risk register maintained by the hospital group, which is the register provided to the HSE nationally, has been changed.

The provision of 24/7 cardiac services and a second cath lab is a major issue in Waterford, where local TD and Minister of State John Halligan has threatened to resign until services are upgraded.

Mr Halligan has strongly criticised a Government-commissioned report by independent cardiologist Niall Herity, which recommended against a second cath lab and said some high-level services should be moved from Waterford to Cork and Dublin.

The medical board says the decision was taken without any due process of consultation and without the input of the clinical directors in Waterford.

“Furthermore, we note, with disquiet, that the downgraded risk score would potentially hinder attempts by the SE to defend the interventional cardiology service in the face of the recommendations of this disputed report,” the board said.

“We would therefore ask that the HSE, and specifically the leadership group in the SSWHG, explain this extraordinary intervention, and in particular clarify the mechanisms of governance that can lead to such arbitrary change in corporate risk assessments without due process.”

The comments appear in a statement released by Dr Paul Crowley, chairman of the medical board at UHW, following a meeting of consultants.