THE HSE has insisted that there will be no loss of accident and emergency services in Cork city.
Under the proposal first announced in November 2010 as part of a reconfiguration of hospital services in Cork and Kerry, the emergency department at the South Infirmary Victoria will close and services will be transferred to Cork University Hospital
The plan also involves the transfer into the South Infirmary Victoria of elective orthopaedic services from St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital, Gurranebraher, which will become home to an urgent care centre to cater for minor injuries such as lower limb fractures.
HSE’s Cork area manager Ger Reaney said the changes followed extensive consultation with staff working in various areas including orthopaedic surgery and emergency medicine, as well as cardiac staff who have moved from the South Infirmary to CUH.
He said the emergency department there would be cut to a 12-hour service from December and the unit would close fully next April, by which time CUH would be able to cater for the increase in emergency attendances.
According to Mr Reaney, only about seven people attend the emergency department at the South Infirmary each night, with the bulk of its 15,000 attendances in 2010 attending by day.
CUH currently has 48,000 attendances at its emergency department a year but it has capacity to cater for 60,000, while the Mercy University Hospital will continue to operate a full 24-hour emergency department in 2012, which will continue to cater for 25,000 attendances.
According to Mr Reaney, there are about 88,000 attendances a year at the city’s three emergency departments and he expressed confidence that the reconfigured hospital system would have the capacity to cater for all of these.
He said the new acute medical unit and the new medical assessment unit, opening in December, and surgical assessment unit opening in January, at CUH were expected to reduce attendances at the hospital’s emergency department by 11,000-12,000.
The urgent care centre at St Mary’s Orthopaedic is expected to cater for another 8,000 to 9,000 attendances a year, leading to about 20,000 fewer people having to attend the CUH emergency department, he added.
Mr Reaney said the full closure of the emergency department at the South Infirmary next April was being timed to ensure that all four of these ancillary units were up and running so that there was sufficient capacity in the CUH emergency department.
Workers Party councillor Ted Tynan said the closure of the emergency department at the South Infirmary “will inevitably cost lives”.