Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
HSE National Service Plan 2022: Discussion
Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source
When accident and emergency services closed in Ennis General Hospital the whole argument at the time, which I did not buy into, was we would have centres of excellence in each region and people would travel beyond their home base for certain aspects of healthcare. The problem has largely been consultant capacity. It certainly has been in the mid-west, though not to the same extent here in Dublin because within the capital there are quite a lot of consultants who have specialties in the various realms of healthcare. We do not have such a capacity in the mid-west more than a decade on. Thus the closure of Ennis accident and emergency unit based on that argument has been proved to be flawed. It does not work. I am aware the HSE has opened up a local injuries unit and there has been capacity building and many positives but is there now a feeling within the HSE that diminished capacity is coming back to haunt us and maybe there is yet again a need for accident and emergency care at Ennis General Hospital?
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