Sir, – The recent review of Portlaoise Hospital by Hiqa, following on from its 2015 report, places not just Portlaoise but all other smaller hospitals in a very difficult position. (News, December 5th).
Provision of high-quality emergency and critical care services in smaller hospitals is almost impossible due to constraints of funding and of recruiting high-quality consultant staff.
For example, an intensive care unit needs a consultant intensive care doctor and in-house doctor available 24-7, but the majority of smaller Irish hospitals don’t have this. The same applies to the staffing of an emergency department.
Even if enough senior staff is recruited, the total workload is small so that it is difficult for all the appointees to maintain their skills, resulting in gradual deterioration in the quality of the service.
Up until now, local action groups, formed to keep local hospital services open, have placed an emphasis on the range of services available in the local hospital, but they have never emphasised that the services must be to an acceptable international standard. It is time for hospital action groups and “friends of the hospital” organisations to lobby intelligently and to place a new emphasis on quality of care at their local hospital. In doing so they would have to accept that certain services should be closed if they cannot achieve an acceptable standard.
It is no longer enough to lobby for the local hospital service – we must lobby for a high-quality local service. – Yours, etc,
TOM O’ROURKE
Retired GP,
Church Road,
Gorey, Co Wexford.