Sir, – The Royal College of Surgeons Ireland supports and welcomes Minister for Health James Reilly’s development of hospital networks. We believe bringing hospitals together into networks under a unified executive and governance structure is necessary to ensure the national clinical programmes can be delivered effectively.
RCSI wishes to strongly support the proposal to formalise the existing relationship of the hospitals in the south east to form a hospital group. This proposal outlines bringing together Waterford Regional Hospital (WRH), Wexford General Hospital, Kilcreene Regional Orthopaedic Hospital, South Tipperary General Hospital and St Luke’s Hospital Kilkenny under a new single management and governance structure. We would caution not to dismantle the current hospital group in the south east as it might adversely impact on the delivery of national clinical care programmes.
RCSI has made significant investments to support the educational and research infrastructure in the south east. We provide an academic platform within the region, with WRH being a full teaching hospital of the college, and a long standing academic relationship with St Luke’s hospital. We also have a formal memorandum of understanding with Waterford Institute of Technology to work together to support the hospitals in the region.
We hope the forthcoming report on hospital networks recognises the success of the hospitals in the south east in working together to deliver high quality patient care and recognises the role of RCSI as the existing and future academic partner in the region. – Yours, etc,