HSE denies plan to divert critically ill from Ennis hospital is downgrade

A CONTROVERSIAL plan to discontinue the treatment of critically ill patients at Ennis General Hospital is not a downgrading of the facility, the Health Service Executive said yesterday.

From May, ambulances will bypass Ennis hospital and transfer critically injured patients direct to the regional trauma centre at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.

Explaining the policy yesterday at a briefing in Ennis, A&E consultant Cathal O'Donnell said the driving principle behind the new policy was "to try to save lives".

"We're talking about around 20 to 25 patients a year and the outcome is that we expect the survival rate to increase by 25 per cent. So out of every four patients, one more will live that would otherwise die, that is the international evidence that is there," he said.

Dr O'Donnell pointed out that the 20 to 25 critically injured patients was out of a total of 20,000 patients that attend the A&E unit at Ennis each year.

However, the Siptu spokesman for the local ambulance service, Frank O'Malley, claimed lives would be put at risk under the new protocol because the ambulance staff were not skilled enough.

"We are not skilled for it and the HSE told us today that they have no money to upskill us. It seems to be the right idea in the interests of the patient, but we need the skills," he said.

At the briefing, HSE local hospital network manager John Hennessy said he did not believe "for a second" that the move downgrades Ennis hospital.

"I think that Ennis is a very valuable resource and will continue to provide that function for a long time to come," he said.

The new protocol comes against the background of confirmation that the redevelopment of Ennis hospital has been stalled and a soon to be published consultants' report that is expected to recommend the downgrading of the 24-hour A&E unit at Ennis.

On the new protocol, Mr Hennessy said: "The reality is that you are either doing this business properly and to international standards or you shouldn't be doing it at all.

"The consequences of getting things wrong here are catastrophic, that is the driving principle. We have got to get to a stage where we are doing things properly. All the evidence available suggests that we need to do this in a major centre such as Limerick."

He said the move was not about saving money. "It is quite simple that the weight of evidence is overwhelming on this, we have to provide properly for major trauma victims. They have a better chance of survival, better prospect of recovery by getting them to the proper hospital in the first instance," he said.