Doctors protest over reduction in emergency care

A GROUP of consultants have come together to publicly object to suspected plans to end round the clock emergency services at their county hospital.

Four senior doctors at Roscommon County Hospital said they feared patients in trauma cases would be forced to travel up to an extra hour and 20 minutes to Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe in neighbouring Co Galway if the plan proceeded. They said this meant many patients would not reach hospital within the “golden hour” essential to give them the best chances of recovery. The consultants, who detailed their concerns in letters to local newspapers, are surgeon Liam McMullin, consultant physicians Pat McHugh and Gerry O’Mara and psychiatrist Charles Byrne.

In their letters, they said their concerns arose from meetings they had attended with Health Service Executive (HSE) management and senior staff from Portiuncula in recent months. “The meetings were ostensibly to look at surgical services in the two hospitals and examine how they can best function.