Drumm: Cork does not need three A&Es
Professor Brendan Drumm said Cork did not need its three 24-hour A&E centres at Cork University Hospital, Mercy University Hospital (MUH) and the South Infirmary/Victoria University Hospital.
A new A&E department was completed at the MUH 18 months ago. But hospital management have not been able to open it on a 24-hour basis because they can not afford to pay the number of staff required to operate it.
At a meeting of the HSE South Forum yesterday, hospitals’ network manager, Gerry O’Dwyer, said he had “no further funding resources” to enable MUH management open the unit.
Professor Drumm said major questions have to be asked about how many A&E departments the city needed. He also predicted there would be less than seven A&E departments covering all of Dublin within the next 10 years.
He said he wanted to reduce the burden on A&Es by ensuring treatment is provided elsewhere for everybody, apart from the critically ill. Half a dozen protestors attended the HSE meeting in Cork’s County Hall yesterday.
They stood silently in the spectators’ gallery holding placards asking when the HSE was going to fund the opening of the MUH A&E. Socialist Party councillor Mick Barry then started shouting at HSE officials seeking an answer.
The HSE was forced to adjourn the meeting for five minutes while order was restored.
However, within seconds of resuming the meeting, protestors started chanting ‘HSE, HSE, when are you going to open our A&E?’
They were then ejected by staff.
Cllr Catherine Clancy said she didn’t believe HSE management’s assertion “that Cork was dripping with A&E’s”.
Management at MUH said despite Prof Drumm’s comments they still plan to open their new A&E department.
“It will open as soon as possible,” a management spokesman said. “There is a huge demand for the service. The existing A&E department caters for more than 25,000 people a year, a quarter of whom are admitted to hospital.”
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