Closure of in-patient beds raises concerns

THE last remaining public in-patient beds on the northside of Cork city will close within a year under plans to relocate orthopaedic services to the city centre.

In a move seen by some as the death knell for hospital services north of the Lee, the Health Service Executive (HSE) last night informed staff at St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital that it intends to move in-patient and day surgery, as well as rehabilitation services, to the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH). Outpatient services will also transfer to the city centre hospital.

This will end the 55-year-old Gurranabraher hospital’s acute surgical role, leaving onsite mental health, intellectual disability and ambulance services as well as outreach maternity and health centre services. A 50-bed community nursing unit is also due to open on the 30-acre site this year.

In a statement issued last night, the HSE said there would be no job losses among the 220 staff affected by the relocation and that there would be “full engagement” with their unions.

However, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) which represents approximately 90 staff at St Mary’s said they had concerns the reconfiguration of services could take a significant number of beds out of the hospital system.

“We have been told by the HSE that there will be 70 elective beds at SIVUH compared to the 90-plus at St Mary’s,” said INMO industrial relations officer Patsy Doyle.

Last night, Prof John Higgins, director of reconfiguration in the HSE South, said the SIVUH orthopaedic beds would not be “new” beds but that the hospital had carried out a feasibility study and identified what could be made available in wards not currently open.

The move to SIVUH will be accompanied by a €4 million investment to include three new theatres.

Prof Higgins said the new development would address issues such as infection control, particularly important in orthopaedic patients.

Significantly, the overhaul of orthopaedic services will facilitate the reintroduction of paediatric orthopaedic surgery, absent in the city since 2007, forcing children with dislocated hips and clubfoot to travel to Dublin for treatment. Prof Higgins said the reconfiguration will allow the vast majority to have surgery in Cork.

However, Joe O’Callaghan, spokesman for the SIPTU union, which represents approximately 100 workers at St Mary’s, said the move was “a betrayal of the people of the northside”.

“We were promised a national rehabilitation unit at St Mary’s a number of years ago.

“Instead, northsiders have been abandoned politically, economically, socially and now healthcare-wise,” said Mr O’Callaghan.