Leaked HSE plan downgrades 3 hospitals

A HSE memo reveals covert plans to further downgrade three mid-west hospitals.

The claim, regarding hospitals in Nenagh, Limerick and Ennis, was made yesterday by Labour spokeswomann on health Jan O’Sullivan.

She said: “The memo circulated to staff in Nenagh hospital is the first indication that plans are underway to downgrade, at least, Nenagh and probably St John’s in Limerick and Ennis and to transfer a huge extra workload of A&E and acute services to the Regional Hospital in Limerick.”

She said a regional HSE meeting with Prof Brendan Drumm took place last week and major changes were announced to senior hospital management in the mid-west.

Ms O’Sullivan said: “I am appalled that proposals with such implications for the people of the mid-west should be plotted in such a stealthy manner.

“There has been no announcement by the minister; no publication of the Teamwork Report on which they are based and no information for the public.

“Limerick Regional cannot cope with its own workload at the moment. It cannot possibly take on the extra patients envisaged in a time when budgets and staff numbers are being frozen.”

The leaked memo says, in relation to Nenagh, that all complex acute work and overnight work will be moved to one site, namely the Midwest Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle.

The A&E department is to become a minor injuries unit with investment in nurse-led initiatives, such as advanced nurse practitioners and nurse specialists.

Ms O’Sullivan said: “Effectively, much of the work now done in Nenagh will move to Limerick. We don’t know what is proposed for Ennis and St John’s but it could be just as drastic. I believe this is short-sighted and dangerous for patients and it won’t even be cost-effective.”

Deputy O’Sullivan said the move was decided on “without even an audit or a public announcement of the how or the why of it”.

She called on the Minister for Health to tell the public what is going on.

However, a spokesman for the HSE said: “Professor Drumm met with clinicians and managers in the mid- west to brief them on current proposals.

“Professor Drumm said that his over-riding concern was to assure patients they would get the best quality care. Ease of access to a hospital should never be regarded as being more important than quality of care.

“The meeting discussed the planning that would be needed to transfer the relatively low volumes of complex care from Ennis and Nenagh to Limerick. It also discussed expanding the work being carried out at Ennis and Nenagh, in particular day case procedures and diagnostic needs at these locations.

“Almost 50% of all hospital procedures are now carried out on a day case basis."