Cork hospitals’ merger plan shelved

MERGER plans involving two of the country’s biggest voluntary hospitals have been temporarily shelved.

A five-year strategic plan published yesterday by the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork city made no reference to its proposed €500 million amalgamation with the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, announced in 2007.

Instead, the plan dovetails with much of what the Health Service Executive (HSE) has proposed as part of reconfiguring acute hospital services in the south.

The plan proposes:

nSwitching from a round-the-clock emergency department (ED) service to a 24-hour admissions referral centre, in other words those who attend will have been referred by their GP. The ED would offer a reduced service from 8am-10pm. This is in line with HSE plans that the only 24-hour emergency department in Cork will operate out of Cork University Hospital (CUH). MUH would also have an in-house GP co-op service.

nAn end to out-of-hours emergency surgery, as per HSE plans, and a focus instead on elective (scheduled) surgery.

nRetention of acute care, both surgical and medical.

However the plan, which the Sisters of Mercy order took the unusual step of engaging consultants to devise, also lays down a number of markers for the HSE.

These include proposals to develop a regional ambulatory care centre where outpatients could undergo various diagnostic tests; a regional rehabilitation centre that could treat patients who must currently travel to Dublin; a regional centre for bariatric (gastric bypass) surgery and a regional centre for orthopaedics.

MUH chief executive Pat Madden said there was “an effort by the hospital to fit in strategically” with what the HSE is planning while at the same time “making it clear we will not be subsumed by the HSE”.

The plan warns that CUH, which has been identified by HSE as the location for most acute services, is already operating beyond capacity. It describes the terms of engagement by which the HSE and Department of Health relate to voluntary healthcare agencies as, “problematic, ambiguous and short term” in nature, finding that “the HSE’s dual role as both commissioner and operator of healthcare services puts a heavy obligation on it being objective”.

Chair of the board of governors, Des Murphy, said he believed the HSE would welcome the plan. He also said the SIVUH amalgamation plan was “not off the table, but on the back burner” on foot of the current economic situation.

Mr Madden said the re-organisation of services would not mean job losses. The plan, by Prospectus Consultants, took three months to compile and cost in the region of €60,000.