THE MERCY University Hospital in Cork has published a strategic plan for the next five years in which it confirms its willingness to work with reconfiguration proposals from the HSE while at the same time seeking to expand into new areas of service provision.
The Mercy University Hospital strategic plan 2010-2014 was commissioned by the provincial leadership team of the Sisters of Mercy and addresses the hospital’s role in the light of radical plans by the HSE to reconfigure hospital services in Cork city and county.
Under the report published by the HSE last June, consultants Howarth and Teamwork recommended the centralisation of all acute services in Cork city and county at Cork University Hospital, effectively removing acute services from the Mercy.
But, in the report compiled for the MUH, management consultants Prospectus propose that the Mercy develop a focus on planned acute complex care while also delivering a number of regional speciality services based on existing expertise at the hospital.
The Prospectus report acknowledges that the manner in which patients access the Mercy will change, particularly in relation to emergency services, with a move away from the existing 24 hours a day seven days a week emergency department at the 152-year-old inner city hospital.
Instead, a restricted hours AE department would operate every day from 8am to 10pm with patients being admitted either to the 350-bed MUH or referred on to Cork University Hospital, the Prospectus report recommends.
The strategic plan also proposes establishing of a 24/7 admissions referral centre catering for acute medical and surgical patients through a medical admissions unit following their referral from a GP or a hospital consultant in the area.
The report stresses however, that this move away from the current 24/7 self-referral emergency department will only take place when the MUH is satisfied that the emergency department at CUH has the capacity to cope with the added influx of patients.
In line with the Howarth and Teamwork report for the HSE, the Prospectus report envisages a collaborative citywide approach to surgical services with surgeons working at multiple sites such as MUH, CUH and the South Infirmary Victoria.
While all complex surgery will provided at CUH, surgeons at the Mercy will carry out minor, intermediate and major elective work including groin and incisional hernia, varicose veins and various colon and rectal procedures.
MUH chief executive Pat Madden said the Prospectus report, which was commissioned three months ago after the Howarth and Teamwork report, indicated the willingness of the hospital to change in line with the need for reconfiguration while still focusing on its core strengths.