A ROW has broken out between Fianna Fáil Minister of State Michael Finneran and Minister of Health Mary Harney over plans to remove acute inpatient surgery services from Roscommon County Hospital.
The plan is to create a joint department of surgery between the Roscommon hospital and Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe about 40 miles away. The HSE said five surgeons would be shared by the hospitals but all five would be based in Ballinasloe and visit Roscommon daily to assess patients, conduct outpatient clinics and perform day surgery.
Ms Harney said yesterday during a visit to Athlone that proposals to set up a single department of surgery between the two hospitals would proceed despite local opposition.
She added that she had met HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm and Roscommon-South Leitrim TD and Minister for Housing, Urban Renewal and Developing Areas, Michael Finneran, to discuss the issue on Thursday and agreement had been reached to engage with clinicians locally on the changes.
Following her comments, HSE West issued a statement confirming that its strategy to create a single department of surgery serving the Roscommon and Ballinasloe hospitals would now be implemented.
"The plan has been developed in consultation with staff to secure the future of surgery in both hospitals. Roscommon and Portiuncula have small surgical units with two consultant surgeons in each.
"Under the new plan, there will be a team of five consultant surgeons serving both hospitals. This will enhance the range and volume of surgery available locally, with benefits for patients and greater development of staff skills and training," it said. "The HSE will now draw up a detailed implementation plan."
However Mr Finneran later stressed that no agreement had yet been reached to proceed with the HSE plan. He said Thursday's meeting with Ms Harney had been scheduled at his request and at that meeting he outlined his opposition to the HSE plan. He said it did not correspond with the terms of an agreement he had reached at an earlier meeting in Ms Harney's office in September 2006.
He said the agreement in 2006 was that there would be a joint department of surgery but that there be two surgeons based in each hospital and the fifth shared between them. He wants inpatient surgery retained in Roscommon and consultant surgeon cover out of hours and at weekends.
He said what the HSE plans would "undermine the services at the hospital [ Roscommon] and leave a large area without consultant surgeon cover out of hours, which would be unsafe". He added: "We are talking about a vast area of 60,000 to 70,000 people that would not have cover in the event of emergencies."
He said Prof Drumm promised to send an official to Roscommon in coming weeks to consult with staff about the plan.
Asked if there was now a major rift between the Government parties over the issue, Mr Finneran responded: "There's no major rift but I'm quite determined that I'm going to protect the lives of my constituents."