THE HEALTH Service Executive has been accused of prematurely removing essential emergency services from Clare and Tipperary without firstly providing extra capacity at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.
It has emerged that the contract for the construction of a new critical care block promised for the regional hospital at Dooradoyle, Limerick, has not been awarded, while the board of the HSE has yet to approve the project.
Under the reorganisation plan for hospital services in the mid-west, as proposed in the controversial Teamwork Report, 24-hour accident and emergency facilities were removed from Ennis and Nenagh hospitals last April.
As part of that reconfiguration, it had been promised that the critical care block, comprising an intensive care unit, high dependency unit and coronary care unit, would be provided at the regional hospital in Dooradoyle.
It has also been promised that the facility would be commissioned before the end of 2010. However, the HSE has confirmed that it is not now likely to be completed until mid-2011 “at the earliest.” Limerick East TD Jan O’Sullivan (Labour) said this was “extremely disappointing and worrying for the care of patients.
“It also shows that we were absolutely right when we said that services shouldn’t be taken away from Ennis and Nenagh without the extra capacity in Limerick being delivered. The critical care unit was a key element of this provision.”
The HSE has already stated that while the project is included in its 2009 capital plan and will be included in its plan for 2010, it can only be progressed when it has been approved by the board of the HSE and when the plan for 2010 has also been approved.
The HSE says tenders for the project have been received and a contract is expected to be appointed before the end of this year.
“I am urging the HSE to proceed on a much faster timeframe,” Ms O’Sullivan said. “I see no reason why the project has to wait for approval of the HSE 2010 capital plan seeing as it has already been included in the 2009 plan. I will be raising this with the Minister for Health and Prof [Brendan] Drumm.”
Ennis and Clare Green Party councillor Brian Meaney, who is also a member of the HSE Health Forum (West) said: “The delay is far from satisfactory. We were given every assurance that any services withdrawn would be more than adequately replaced by services at the regional hospital in Limerick. The HSE never seems to learn from its mistakes. They said no service would be withdrawn from Ennis until new services were in place in Limerick and it is clear that this is not the case.”