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 A consultant surgeon in the north-east yesterday rejected suggestions that the reorganisation of surgical services at the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk was effectively the introduction of the Hanly report by the back door. |
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Mr Maurice Stokes, a surgeon at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, said the plan for Dundalk hospital was devised last year before the Government-backed Hanly report on hospital reorganisation, which has similar plans for some other regions, was published.
Under the new and controversial North Eastern Health Board (NEHB) plan for Dundalk, the hospital, which has 137 beds, will not have consultant surgeons on site after 5 p.m. on weekdays or at weekends from July 1st. Nurses at the hospital and the chairman of its medical board, Dr Tom O'Callaghan, have described the proposal as unsafe.
Explaining the genesis of the plan, Mr Stokes said there had been problems filling consultant surgery posts in Dundalk. There had not been a full-time consultant surgeon in Dundalk for about four years, he said. There have, however, been two long-term locums in place.
He said Comhairle na nOspidéal, the body responsible for approving consultant posts, suggested a joint department of surgery between the Dundalk hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. A plan for the joint department was devised by the three permanent consultant surgeons in Drogheda and approved by Comhairle.
Mr Stokes pointed out that after the plan is implemented there will be six consultant surgeons on duty between the two hospitals, three in each every day. "This is far higher cover than currently in place."
All complex surgery will be transferred to Drogheda and, out of hours, surgeons will be on call for Dundalk from Drogheda. It is not intended that the on-call consultant surgeon will travel to Dundalk. He or she will be available for consultation by phone with junior doctors in Dundalk.
"There are concerns that Dundalk will be reduced in status. This is not the case. We are planning more surgery sessions and more surgeons attending Dundalk than at present," Mr Stokes said, adding that a new theatre would have to be built in Dundalk.
He denied the hospital would end up being a day hospital. The vast majority of general surgery, including appendectomies, would continue to be carried out there. And if a patient presented with a perforated appendix in Dundalk at night and was not able for a transfer to Drogheda, a surgeon would travel to Dundalk, he said. "This is the only way to deliver safe care." There were no plans to take the hospital off call.
The Health Services Action Group, the national organisation set up to fight the Hanly report, said the changes amounted to a downgrading of the Dundalk hospital. It condemned the plan.
Dr John Barton, vice-chairman of the group, said the decision showed that the principle of the Hanly report - to centralise services and downgrade hospitals against the wishes of the community - was being implemented even before Hanly had devised plans for the north-east region.
Local TD and Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, has called for an independent facilitator to be appointed to resolve the dispute. Dr O'Callaghan has claimed consultants in Dundalk were not consulted about the changes. The NEHB denied this.