Drumm says HSE is responsible over Walsh death

The head of the Health Service Executive said today the death of a 75-year-old man in Monaghan General Hospital was not the responsibility of politicians.

Pref Brendan Drumm said this morning there are "many questions which needed answering" in the case of Patrick Joseph Walsh, who died of a bleeding ulcer after attempts to find him an intensive care bed failed last week.

It emerged yesterday that Monaghan hospital was told no intensive care beds were available in the northeast for Mr Walsh when intensive care beds were in fact available at both Cavan General Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.

The incident happened last Thursday night when staff at Monaghan were trying to transfer Patrick Joseph Walsh (75) for emergency surgery. He later died.

Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning, Prof Drumm he said he believed Mr Walsh should not have died. He said the system had failed and that the health service should provide "optimal service to those who need to avail of it."

Prof Drumm said that there was "no way" that what happened could be defended and said an inquiry would have a number of questions to answer including what happened to Mr Walsh in Monaghan and to what extent resources were utilised at a time when a patient transfer may have been dangerous.

"I have very significant concerns about our ability to provide a quality of service to people like Mr Walsh in a situation where we divide our resources, which are provided at great expense by the taxpayer, across a number of sites, that's unjustifiable," he said. "It's not good enough for me and I don't think it's good enough for those who pay for it."

When asked about the extent of cover provided by the emergency services in the northeast, Mr Drumm said it was a health service issue and not a political issue. He defended the Government, which came under heavy criticism in the Dáil yesterday.

"I have to accept responsibility for this as an HSE issue, this is not a blame game for politicians," Mr Drumm said. "We have to accept responsibility for configuring our services in the best possible way."

He said he would challenge "anyone" to produce an expert who would state "that we should have five acute hospitals to service a population of 300,000."

"It almost saddens me in the health service to see that this becomes a political battlefield involving Taoiseach, Tanaiste and others when something like this happens.

"This is a health service issue. Can we actually provide five acute care services across a population not much greater than 300,000? International expertise would tell us no."