Proposals to downgrade Cork and Kerry slated

FINE GAEL TD Bernard Allen launched a blistering attack last night on the consultants who recommended downgrading a number of hospitals in Cork and Kerry.

The consultants’ report, details of which were published by the Irish Examiner yesterday, recommends having one regional “centre of excellence” for acute care based in Cork University Hospital. This effectively means that all other hospitals in the Cork and Kerry region currently providing acute care would be downgraded to non-acute “local centres of excellence”.

Mr Allen was scathing of the “faceless consultants”, telling the Dáil that their recommendations would “victimise” people in the southern region.