HSE to advertise hospital's €40m revamp

Ennis General Hospital is main election issue as local fears persist over future of facility

Plans for the long-anticipated €40 million redevelopment of Ennis General Hospital are to be advertised by the Health Service Executive (HSE) this week.

However, the move by the HSE is unlikely to eliminate the hospital as the main general election issue in the four-seater Clare constituency as local fears persist over the future of the facility.

A HSE spokesman confirmed that the formal advertisement for the plans would appear in the press "in the middle of the week".

This follows Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's announcement on a constituency visit to Clare last Saturday week that lodging of the plans "will allow us to move ahead quickly with the significant capital development in Ennis hospital".

With the publication of the advert, the HSE will have two weeks in which to formally lodge the planning application which involves a new day ward, upgraded accident and emergency and pathology departments and the refurbishment of wards in the hospital

However, it is seven years since plans for the upgrade of Ennis General were first announced by the then Minister for Health, Micheál Martin. The costs have now doubled to €40 million.

During that time, the Hanly report was published which recommends the downgrading of the 24-hour A&E unit at Ennis General to a nurse-led minor injury clinic and, in response, 20,000 people walked on Ennis's streets in protest at the report in November, 2003.

However, it appears Fianna Fáil has staked some of its election chances in Clare on the hospital upgrade, with a half-page colour advert by the party in the local press last week proclaiming that its primary commitment in Clare is "Ennis hospital upgrade: retention of 24 hour A&E."

This came in response to the Ennis Hospital Development Committee distributing a leaflet to 38,000 households across Clare in recent days declaring that Ennis General Hospital "is still unsafe for patients and staff".

It states: "After years of delays and deceit, the A&E is expected to close - after the general election."

This claim relates to a HSE-commissioned consultants' report that is examining the configuration of the hospital network in the midwest and the entire HSE western region.

Chairman of the Ennis Hospital Development Committee, Peadar McNamara, said yesterday: "These are the same management consultants who recommended the closure of A&E in Monaghan - and the proposed closure of A&Es in Cavan and Dundalk." The leaflet produced by the Hospital Development Committee warned that if Ennis General loses its A&E unit, "at least 20 people will die each year".

Mr McNamara has advised voters not to vote in favour of the Government "as it will write the small epitaph of Ireland's small general hospitals".

However, Clare FF election candidate Senator Brendan Daly said: "The plans that will be lodged in the next number of days will copperfasten the future of Ennis General.

"I wouldn't be concerned unduly with the consultants' report as it will be the Government that will ensure the hospital's future."

Green party election candidate and member of the Ennis Hospital Development Committee, Cllr Brian Meaney, said: "Whoever is voted into power after the general election will have to deal with the recommendations of the consultants' report.

I have seen the consultants' term of reference and it shows that the report isn't going to make for pleasant reading for the hospital," he said.