Plan for hospital ‘must’ go ahead

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has told Laois GPs the report on Portlaoise Hospital by the State’s health services watchdog must be fully implemented.

Doctors from the Laois faculty of the Irish College of General Practitioners and Laois Midoc have expressed “grave concern” at plans to downgrade services.

The Health Information and Quality Authority in a report published in May raised concerns about the safety of complex and emergency surgery at the hospital.

It found there were insufficient acute and elective surgical presentations to ensure surgeons maintained the necessary competence.

The HSE is to relocate complex surgery and change how the emergency department operates. It said the transfer might impact on overnight opening hours at Portlaoise hospital but did not specify times.

The doctors want services at the hospital retained and improved, given the hospital’s nationally important location, the area’s rising population and increased demand for the services.

They said the emergency department at Portlaoise had been chronically under-funded and under-resourced for years and that clinical risks were previously identified in a number of HSE reports.

Like Hiqa, the doctors were frustrated that action had not been taken by the HSE and the Government to address the matter.

The emergency department at Portlaoise did not have a full-time permanent consultant, unlike the Midland Regional Hospital at Tullamore, a comparable unit, that had three permanent consultants.

Responding, Mr Varadkar said he appreciated that there was always anxiety when any change to health services was suggested.

“Portlaoise hospital has an excellent future within the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group with maternity, medical and day surgery services being upgraded,” he said.

However, the Hiqa report had raised real concerns about the safety of complex and emergency surgery given the low number of patients and the difficulty in attracting senior staff.

“I welcome the GPs’ call for the Hiqa report to be implemented but, in my view, it must be implemented in full, not just in part,” said the minister.

“It makes no sense in terms of patient safety to implement parts of the Hiqa report, but not to implement others.”

The Department of Health said any change to services at Portlaoise, including its emergency department would be undertaken in a planned and orderly manner.