Minister signals A&E shutdowns

A move to shut down some of the country’s 28 emergency departments has been signalled by Health Minister James Reilly.

Dr Reilly said the controversial initiative could be a good idea after the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) warned that a lack of resources meant that not all emergency departments across the country could be sustained.

Acknowledging that any move to close emergency departments would be politically explosive, Dr Reilly insisted his record proved he would not flinch from reform whatever the opposition.

Advocating a reduction in the number of hospitals providing round-the-clock emergency services, IHCA president Dr Denis Evoy said the development of new hospital network systems would be a “smarter way of ensuring the best patient care possible”.

Dr Reilly put up a robust defence of his embattled time as health minister at the Fine Gael national conference in Limerick as he blamed problems in the “chaotic” health service he inherited on his predecessors in the PDs and Fianna Fáil.

The issue of medical card restrictions erupted at the conference as Dr Reilly defended the way the system has been run and rejected claims he has deliberately targeted people with medical cards in order to reduce costs.

Dr Reilly expressed “concern” at the way some people had lost their discretionary cards.

“There has been no change in the way medical card holders are assessed and no policy change. If there was any change in that policy I would have to bring regulations to the Dáil and put it in front of the Dáil and the Seanad to be passed, so it hasn’t happened,” he said.

Dr Reilly stated that 23,000 people on discretionary cards had been put onto full medical cards, but 1,000 other people “lost out”.

The minister said he was getting a report on the matter from the HSE next week and that the executive’s chiefs would go before the Oireachtas health committee on Thursday.

“And then we will have to sit down and look at how we can improve that so that the hard cases who had cards and have lost them can be addressed.

“I am concerned somebody who has a condition, whose circumstances have not changed and who had a card for years, I’m concerned they can lose that card and I want that looked into in a transparent way we can all understand,” Dr Reilly said.

Dr Reilly pointed to a dramatic reduction in the number of patients waiting on trolleys since the Coalition came to power as he told delegates the figures had been running at above 500 a day in Jan 2011, but had now been cut to below 100.

Delegates called for Dáil reform after the voters rejected Government plans to abolish the Seanad.