Official red tape hits A&E hospital services

ANGER spilled over in Wexford and Galway yesterday over bureaucratic decisions that have put the operation of a hospital’s casualty service in doubt and restricted the care choices available to pregnant women.

Yesterday Health Minister Micheál Martin promised to meet officials from Irish Medical Council (IMC) and South Eastern Health Board in a bid to stop the closure of the casualty department at Wexford General Hospital from next Monday.

The hospital’s accident and emergency unit, which treats 24,000 cases every year, may have to close after two of the unit’s six trainee or non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHD) resigned. One is leaving to pursue further training while the other has been forced to step down for family reasons.

The IMC says an eight-week replacement stint would be far too short as a training term and have refused to issue replacement contracts.

If the casualty department closes, emergency cases would have to be transferred to Waterford, which is 50 miles away, or Loughlinstown, Co Dublin, around 100 miles away.

Independent TD Dr Liam Twomey warned that hospitals around the country face a similar scenario if the IMC does not budge from its guidelines.

Hospital manager Teresa Hanrahan accused the IMC of being extremely inflexible and said there should be continuity of care at the hospital.

In Galway yesterday Parents for Choice in Birthing staged a protest outside the offices of the Western Health Board to protest against the board’s decision to suspend the Domino and Home Birth pilot scheme.

The board suspended the scheme in University College Hospital Galway because of the need to appoint a consultant neonatologist.

Parents for Choice in Birthing said the appointment of the consultant, while welcome, should not be at the expense of the scheme that had been run on a pilot basis during its first two years and had just entered its third year when it was suspended.

Ann Irwin of Parents for Choice in Birthing said the decision was based on false economics. An evaluation of a similar scheme operated by the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin showed that it was cost-effective.

More than 300 mothers had participated in the scheme that provides for midwifery-led care throughout their pregnancy, plus a follow-up post-natal visit by the midwife. Mothers either chose to give birth at hospital or at home. Ms Irwin said it was shame that such an absolutely wonderful scheme had been discontinued: “It really was the best of both worlds. The added benefits were huge for women.”

The group is seeking legal advice on the decision to suspend the scheme because, under the 1970 Health Act, health boards were obliged to provide a home birth service for women.