Other hospitals to take on burden as Monaghan loses acute services
Yesterday, the Health Service Executive (HSE) announced that all acute medical services will be transferred from Monaghan Hospital to Cavan General Hospital on July 22. This means acute medical patients – such as patients with chronic respiratory illness or acute cardiac failure – will no longer be treated at MGH. Surgery at MGH will be limited to day surgery only.
The hospital will retain outpatient services and a number of diagnostic services, as well as dentistry, ear, nose and throat services. However the withdrawal of all on-call acute services will effectively turn MGH into a day hospital, albeit with 13 step-down and 13 rehabilitation beds which will accommodate patients from Cavan General.
The move, which will see the redeployment of 130 staff, is in line with the recommendations of the Teamwork Management Services Report, a HSE-commissioned report on the reconfiguration of hospital services in the north-east. It is widely opposed by local hospital action groups and politicians. Yesterday two local Fianna Fáil TDs issued a statement stating they did not agree with the decision to move on-call acute services from Monaghan.
Former Ceann Comhairle, Dr Rory O’Hanlon – also a former health minister – and his constituency colleague, TD Margaret Conlon, said they had been repeatedly assured by HSE representatives that the removal of services would not take place until adequate measures were satisfactorily in place, “but this is not yet the case”.
They claimed that the ambulance service, while recently extended in Co Monaghan, was not yet properly tried and tested, that essential primary care teams were not properly in place and that a CT scanner was not in operation.
The deputies said it was their opinion that Cavan General Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda were “unable to cope with the current patient load, never mind an increase in patients” and that they were seeking an urgent meeting with Health Minister Health Mary Harney and HSE chief Professor Brendan Drumm, to address their concerns.
Cavan/Monaghan Sinn Féin TD and Dáil party leader, Caoimhghín O Caoláin said the decision to end acute services at MGH was taken against appeals from frontline health care workers, including GPs, consultants, nurses, and support staff. He described the HSE decision as “disastrous” and added that it would place “many lives at risk”.
However the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association said consultants it represented at the hospital “accepted the principal” behind the transfer of services and that just “one or two minor issues remain to be resolved”.
The HSE said there will be no medical admissions or inpatient acute medical care in Monaghan from July 22. All emergency and acute hospital care for Cavan and Monaghan will be provided in Cavan General Hospital. Patients needing emergency hospital admission will be admitted to Cavan General Hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan or Louth County Hospital, Dundalk.
A seven-day 12-hour minor injury unit will replace the 24-hour treatment room in Monaghan Hospital.
