Assessment units ‘will put hospital trolleys into skip’

THE head of the HSE South’s controversial hospital reconfiguration plan has claimed new medical assessment units (MAUs) at all facilities will make hospital trolleys obsolete.

Speaking at the latest HSE South regional health forum meeting, Professor John Higgins said the move could potentially lead to significant reductions in emergency department waiting times.

According to the senior health official, who has been heavily criticised by patient groups over plans to remove services from the region’s six acute hospitals, the new MAUs will play a key role in the future development of services in Cork and Kerry.

Under the plan, anyone who seeks to attend an emergency department will first be seen at the hospital’s MAU, where highly trained staff will assess whether the injuries warrant immediate intervention.

The units are due to be put in place at Bantry General, Cork University Hospital (CUH), Mercy University Hospital (MUH), Kerry General and South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) over the next two years.

And despite local criticism that the changes will form part of a downgraded emergency department plan, Prof Higgins said they will prove vital to significantly reducing trolley numbers and waiting times in the facilities.

“Patients waiting on trolleys is a problem, that’s what we are addressing,” argued the clinical director of the HSE South reconfiguration process.

“A&E staff should not simply carry the burden for those who have not been admitted.

“Once we roll this out and we reach where we are going in the next two to three years we can put all of those trolleys at CUH into a big skip because that is where they need to go,” he said.

Under the controversial HSE plans for the region, emergency department services will be centralised at CUH.

As part of the move a long-awaited review of emergency services in the Cork area, led by consultant Dr Stephen Cusack, has also been concluded.

This document is due to be published next month, with Prof Higgins declining to provide any details of its recommendations.

The lack of information on the matter has caused significant concern among local representatives in the area, with the HSE refusing to confirm whether theimminent publication of the document will result in further service cuts across the region.