Doctors urge HSE to defer downgrading of hospitals

THE Health Service Executive’s controversial timeline for the downgrading of hospital services in the mid-west should be deferred until unanswered questions over the safety of patients can be addressed, medics have urged.

More than 80 general practitioners from north Tipperary and Clare met with senior HSE management to highlight their “anger” at the way services are being altered. A spokesperson for the representative group said the HSE’s “narrow timeline” meant that patient safety could not be guaranteed.

Under condition of anonymity, the GP said that during the three-hour private meeting with HSE Mid-West hospital networks manager, John Hennessy, and the head of the reform board, Dr Paul Burke, family doctors raised concerns over the additional workload expected to be taken by an already stretched GP service if emergency departments are downgraded, and the “inadequate” level of ambulance services in north Tipperary.