HSE WEST has denied that there is any plan to downgrade east Galway’s Portiuncula Hospital, following concerns expressed by two Fine Gael TDs.
The two Galway East deputies – Ulick Burke and Paul Connaughton – have said that they believe some 30 contract posts across a range of medical disciplines are not to be renewed by hospital management.
However, HSE West says six contracts will not be renewed. These posts are “across disciplines where there are temporary contracts of less than one year”, HSE West said.
It has confirmed that one ward and one theatre are currently closed at Portiuncula. A HSE spokeswoman said that any cuts were in line with budgetary cuts imposed on health services in the region and elsewhere.
Mr Burke (Fine Gael) contended that more jobs were at risk, judging from the number of phone calls he had received from staff members and relatives in the past few days. These posts involved medical and administrative staff in many hospital departments, he said.
This was echoed by his constituency colleague for Galway East, Paul Connaughton (Fine Gael), who said that he had heard “heartbreaking stories” about young married nurses with large mortgages, some of whom were in a situation where their spouses had also suffered unemployment in recent months.
Mr Connaughton described as “shocking” the level of anxiety among staff and the public about the hospital’s future.
He had been advised by the HSE West’s head of hospital operations, Alan Moran, that while staff numbers had reduced by approximately 30 in total, and some staff had been put on shorter working hours, there were no plans to downsize the hospital.
Portiuncula is an acute hospital serving south and east Galway, parts of Roscommon and the midlands. Its maternity ward delivers up to 2,500 babies annually.
A special medical assessment centre is also being established at the hospital as part of a pilot scheme in the region, according to Mr Connaughton.
The two TDs said that both Minister for Health Mary Harney and HSE director Prof Brendan Drumm should understand the depth of feeling in the region in relation to Portiuncula.
People would “fight tooth and nail” to resist any threat to the hospital’s long-term status, he added.