Revealed: CUH to be sole acute care centre

CORK University Hospital (CUH) is set to become the only acute hospital in Cork and Kerry, according to an unpublished report seen by the Irish Examiner.

The recommendation is likely to cause political embarrassment on the door- steps for Government candidates running in the local elections.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) had planned to publish the report on June 9, four days after voting takes place.

The report, a review of acute services in the HSE South, recommends having one regional “centre of excellence” for acute care based in Cork city, at the CUH site.

This would eventually become the “sole provider” of acute care in Cork and Kerry. This effectively means the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) and South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) in Cork city; Mallow and Bantry General Hospitals, and Kerry General Hospital, all of which currently provide acute care, will be downgraded to non-acute “local centres of excellence”.

The report, by the Dublin office of Teamwork Management Services, also recommends:

* That consultants currently delivering acute care in Cork city have rights of access to continue their acute clinical practice at the new centre ie CUH.

* That midwifery in Kerry be the only exception to the concentration of acute services at CUH.

* That the reconfiguration of services be implemented in two phases; the first phase involving the reconfiguration of acute services in Cork city, Mallow and Bantry, and the second phase to involve the transfer of acute services from Kerry to Cork. The report estimates the programme for change can be implemented in five to six years and that CUH can provide the extra bed capacity, mainly through the proposed co-located hospital.

The authors of the report say there are “substantial shortcomings in the way acute hospital services are presently configured”; that in essence the services have enough consultants, but they are dispersed across too many hospitals, and the hospitals themselves are too small to maintain satisfactory levels of patient and staff safety.

However, the report cites the “long-standing divisions in medical politics and organisational history in Cork city” as a potential barrier to reconfiguration.

Already, plans to move Breastcheck, which opened last December at a cost of €5 million, from its location adjacent to the SIVUH to CUH, have met with considerable resistance. MUH opened a new A&E at a cost of €5m in December.

The Teamwork report recognises that if CUH becomes the regional centre, a new governance structure involving all stakeholders will be needed.

The Teamwork report warns of the need to build on “lessons learned from implementing the North East transformation programme”.