Staff ‘do not back proposals to downgrade MUH’

MERCY University Hospital has rejected claims by the head of the HSE’s hospital reconfiguration plans that the facility’s doctors are in support of the move.

Reconfiguration project director Prof John Higgins said there was a groundswell of support for the service changes.

The senior clinician added that MUH staff were “leading the charge” of the downgrading process.

However, in a strongly worded statement, hospital chiefs insisted staff were opposed to the move.

“If Prof Higgins is suggesting there is a groundswell of support among medical staff MUH for a proposal that would remove acute care services from the hospital, then that is most certainly not the case and is untrue,” said the spokesperson.

The rejection of Prof Higgins’s claims has been mirrored by the Campaign for a Real Public Health Service group, which has announced plans for a major public meeting on June 24.

According to the group, which expects hundreds of people to attend the event at the Metropole Hotel in Cork city, the planned reconfiguration should be immediately shelved as it will put the lives of rural patients in jeopardy.

Campaign organisers have warned that the Teamwork and Howarth consulting plans to restrict 24-hour surgical and A&E services in Cork to CUH will result in a huge rise in waiting lists for vital services.

Pointing to “serious flaws” in the plans, the group added that any suggestion the service changes – including 40 new primary and community service staff, 1,202 home care packages, 1,013 non-acute beds, 28 mental health beds, and extra diagnostics and assessments for 2,996 patients – could be funded through existing finances at a time of widespread cutbacks was not feasible.

“The Campaign for a Real Public Health Service is opposed to any reconfiguration of services which involves downgrading or shutting down A&Es, provides a cover for cutbacks and promotes a privatisation agenda,” a group spokesperson explained.

Labour Cork East TD Sean Sherlock insisted the move will create sub-standard “satellite” services across the region.

“By concentrating all resources in CUH, the HSE plans to bring about a fundamental shift in how care is delivered, and one that could put at risk the potential medical outcomes of patients who live further from CUH. Anybody who lives more than an hour from CUH will rightly feel nervous about these proposed changes,” he said.