ANALYSIS: The move to forge closer links between the two facilities began some time ago
THE OPERATION of two hospitals as a single entity across a number of different sites is not new in the Irish health service.
There have been examples in recent years in the northeast and west.
However, the scale of the proposed merger of the Mater and St Vincent’s hospitals in Dublin is much larger than has been seen previously.
The proposed link-up would create one of the largest hospitals in the country with a joint complement of in excess of 1,000 beds – although not all of these would be open at present – and more than 4,000 staff.
The move to forge closer links between the Mater and St Vincent’s under the umbrella of a new Dublin Academic Medical Centre has been under way for some time.
Three years ago the two hospitals and University College Dublin signed an agreement aimed at improving clinical patient care, medical education and biomedical research in Ireland.
It was envisaged that the agreement would enable the deployment of resources and the development of shared services across the three institutions to improve access and quality of patient care.
It was also envisaged that the move would facilitate rapid and effective transfer of research ideas into clinical practice and provide improved facilities for clinical training of its medical students.
However, in the intervening time, little more has been heard publicly of the initiative.
Internal Department of Health documents reveal that discussions were held in recent months between its officials and the HSE and parties involved in the proposed Dublin Academic Medical Centre which resulted in the project receiving a significant boost.
In August the secretary general of the Department of Health, Michael Scanlan, wrote to the HSE to say that Minister for Health Mary Harney had given her support for the proposal in principle.
He said that in particular, she backed its objectives of achieving “high quality services for patients, delivering increased efficiencies, offering clear and integrated governance arrangements and harnessing the results of research to the practical benefit of patients”.
Scanlan said that elements which the Minister viewed as key to realising the potential of the new Dublin Academic Medical Centre include the establishment of joint clinical departments between the two sites and the flexibility to move and assign staff at all levels between them.
However, the Minister expressed some concern that the development of the large Mater/St Vincent’s entity should not hinder any future reconfiguration of services that emerged from future hospital reforms.
“It would be very unsatisfactory, for example, if the merger of the two hospitals and creation of an academic medical centre had the unintended effect of hampering any transfer or reorganisation of services which involved hospitals outside the Dublin Academic Medical Centre, or which required further co-operation among health professionals,” Scanlan said.
The numbers: how the Mater and St Vincents compare
* The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital,better known as the Mater, has about 645 beds at full capacity and employs 2,575 staff.
As the main voluntary general hospital serving the north inner city of Dublin, its local catchment area is approximately 170,000. It was founded in 1861.
The hospital has about 16,000 admissions a year, 9,500 of them emergencies; more than 35,000 patients attend for day cases and 45,000 patients attend the emergency department each year.
It is the national centre of a variety of specialisms, including cardiothoracic surgery, heart and lung transplantation and spinal injuries. In 2005, the first lung transplant in the State took place in the Mater, followed by the first double lung transplant in 2007.
* St Vincent's University Hospital, in Elm Park, Dublin, has an annual budget of €213 million, 540 beds and employs 2,450 people.
St Vincent’s Private Hospital has just moved into a new building connected to the St Vincent’s University Hospital building via an underground link tunnel, increasing the private hospital accommodation to 236 beds.
Both hospitals, along with St Michael’s Hospital in Dún Laoghaire, are operated by St Vincent’s Healthcare Group Limited (SVHG), a charitable body owned by the Sisters of Charity.
St Vincent’s was founded in 1831 on St Stephen’s Green but moved to its present site in 1970. Across the group, more than 250,000 patients are treated annually.
PAUL CULLEN
