Hospital surgery dysfunctional, says new report

SURGICAL services at Cavan General Hospital are continuing to nosedive despite repeated recommendations for ways to improve the situation, the latest in a series of damning reports warns.

The new report, from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), describes the surgical unit at the troubled hospital as "dysfunctional" and says poor communication, lack of resources and failure to implement previous recommendations are sending the facility into a decline.

The report follows an inspection by an RCSI delegation last November. RCSI president, Professor Niall O'Higgins, said yesterday the inspection team had found the surgical service was "declining quite a bit".