Staff cuts could reduce hospital to a “glorified health centre”, TD says

A MAJOR children’s hospital risks ending up being nothing more than a “glorified health centre”, according to TD Tony Gregory.

There were real fears, Mr Gregory said, that Temple Street Children’s Hospital on Dublin’s Northside would be downgraded seriously as a result of a shift in consultancy coverage to other city hospitals.

The hospital has 763 skilled staff, including 55 consultants. There are more than 106,000 attendances each year by children from all over Ireland and the hospital has the country’s biggest paediatric casualty unit.

“What is happening is a step-by-step attempt to erode specialist work at Temple Street,” Mr Gregory said.

“That has already happened to some degree, and there are further steps afoot at the moment to compound that,” he said.

He said the situation contradicted plans to relocate the hospital in the sophisticated and ultra-modern Mater Hospital, being built.

He said that, five years from now, the hospital would be nothing more than a glorified health centre.

“In the context of cutbacks, I would be fearful that there is a plan to remove the children’s hospital entirely from the Northside.”

Mr Gregory said it did not make sense to centralise hospital services in Dublin, when there was clearly a need for two major children’s hospitals.

While hospital CEO Paul Cunniffe could not comment, it is understood that consultants at the hospital have discussed specialist coverage in the city with Comhairle na nOspidéal.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority said it had not been informed by the hospital of plans to cut specialist services.

A spokesperson for the authority added that the hospital had received more than €48.8 million this year from the EHRA for specialist services.