'Seeing is believing' - Bantry hospital campaigners give guarded welcome to resumption of acute admissions

Bantry General Hospital's Acute Medical Assessment Unit had been closed since July 26 due to staff sickness, annual leave and staff shortages

Two consultants are due to join the unit at Bantry General Hospital on August 23, and another is expected in September. File Picture: Google

Health campaigners and GPs have welcomed news acute admissions are to resume at Bantry General Hospital.

However, they have warned they will be back protesting if the hospital’s Acute Medical Assessment Unit does not stay open. It has been closed since July 26 due to staff sickness, annual leave and staff shortages.

News it was to reopen came after around 1,000 people took to the streets despite the rain and protested in Bantry on Sunday.

Bantry doctor Paul O’Sullivan, one of the GPs raising awareness locally about the unit’s closure, said: “Like everybody else, I welcome the news.

“We have been assured it will open at 9am and our medical centre has plenty of clients for them.

“However, there is not the air of permanency about this reopening as we would have hoped. And it is difficult to see how long the unit can continue unless they appoint more consultants than they have.”

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While a consultant geriatrician joined the hospital for a few weeks last Friday, his role is to treat inpatients.

Two consultants are due to join on August 23, and a consultant who - according to the South/South West Hospital Group that runs BGH - is currently on sick leave - is due to return to work in September.

Jerry Harrington, who organised Sunday’s protest, said: “I’m delighted with the news but seeing is believing. Almost every crisis at this hospital has, over the years, been filled with false promises. And if it closes again, you can bet we will be back on the streets again.”

Cork South-West TD Michael Collins, who led pressure on the government and the HSE over the closure, said: “I welcome the news the unit is opening as long as it happens.

“Previous promises have been broken.”

When the admissions restrictions came in, people were told by the S/SWHG to “consider other care options”.

This was the same advice the group gave people on Monday after it emerged Cork University Hospital had the worst level of overcrowding in the country since the start of the pandemic.

The National Ambulance Service says admissions restrictions at Bantry have had “no impact on (ambulance) response times”, and the S/SWHG also insists the BGH restrictions have only had “a minimal impact on CUH trolley numbers”.

Liam Conway, Industrial Relations Officer for the INMO, said: “It is impossible to deny the link with the closure of Bantry General Hospital. There’s a clear link between closure in Bantry and pressure elsewhere in the region.”

Local GPs like Paul O’Sullivan said they have noticed a marked increase in response times. One of his patients, for example, had to - he said - wait around three hours to be taken to CUH with a potentially life-threatening condition.

A report into the impact on patient care from the restrictions is due to be produced for the HSE by the Irish College of General Practitioners. Officials there have advised GPs to report to them any suspected or actual “adverse events”.