Southern care plan advice ‘downplayed’

FAILURE to recommend the development of an academic medical centre as part of an overhaul of acute care services in the south has been criticised by the chair of a group set up to monitor the reconfiguration plan.

Professor Gerry Wrixon said a number of recommendations the project group had made were not reflected in the final report on a Review of Acute Services in the HSE South.

Prof Wrixon, former president of University College Cork, was drafted in by the HSE to chair a project group that oversaw the work of two consultancy agencies – Howarth Consulting Ireland and Teamwork Management Service – tasked with drawing up the acute hospital reconfiguration plan for Cork and Kerry.