Fears cuts at special injuries unit may cost lives

THE HSE is not commenting on claims that a special injuries assessment unit at Bantry General Hospital is to close overnight from next January.

It has sparked fears in West Cork that if it goes ahead, and when combined with a reconfiguration of ambulance cover in the region, lives will be put at risk. “I have no doubt that this will cause deaths and make injuries worse,” the mayor of Skibbereen, Cllr Frank Fahy said. Mr Fahy said people need to be aware of how these changes will impact on their lives.

“The people of West Cork don’t seem to realise the implications of what’s coming down the line. If anything happens after 8pm — a road traffic accident, a heart attack, pregnancy bleeding or anything like which is potentially life-threatening — they will be facing a three-hour journey to hospital in Cork city,” he said.

“The guidelines for advanced paramedics and doctors state they should be on scene and have a patient in transport to an appropriate medical facility within 10 minutes and in hospital within the golden hour to give them the best chance of survival. This cannot be attained in West Cork under the new regime.”

Mr Fahy spoke out after he learned of proposals to close Bantry hospital’s minor injuries and assessment unit between 8pm and 8am from January 2012.

It comes on the back of plans to reconfigure the ambulance service in the region following a Labour Court ruling on the on-call allowance in the ambulance service. Mr Fahy said if implemented, the changes would reduce the county’s ambulance cover from 14 vehicles to nine, leaving the county with the highest national average figure for ambulance cover per head of population.

“We will be left with nine ambulances for 518,128 people — that’s 57,569 people per ambulance — way above the national average of 37,000,” he said.

And he said that even though the ambulance service is exponentially busier than the fire service, phase one of the reconfiguration will leave West Cork with just two ambulances to service an area which is covered by eight full fire brigade units. Paramedics working on the ground are genuinely concerned about how the changes will affect their ability to provide adequate cover, he said.

“With on-call or without on-call, our jobs are there. Our concerns are for the people of West Cork,” one paramedic said. However, the HSE declined to comment on the claims about the overnight closure of Bantry’s minor injuries and assessment unit. A spokesman said a process has begun to implement changes to ensure Bantry is compliant with HIQA requirements for hospital services reorganisation.

“The intention is that the proposals on any changes to service delivery at Bantry General Hospital will be finalised and submitted to government next month,” he said.