Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

I support the motion fully and, in particular the reference to "the imminent threat to the critical front line hospital services in the north east". Mr. Finbarr Lennon, consultant general and breast surgeon in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, held high office advising the North Eastern Health Board when it was in place. He referred in a letter dated 11 December 2007 to another letter he wrote during the general election campaign on 19 June 2007 in which he expressed his concern about the failure of the management authorities at all levels to appreciate the impact and consequences of the current workload and the throughput of cases in the hospital in Drogheda. Mr. Lennon indicated that in his opinion the situation was "very unsafe" and he called for a fundamental reappraisal of the current strategy being pursued by management regarding acute hospital services in the region. He stated:

I have just completed another difficult on-call duty weekend, which has confirmed to me the utter folly of the current management strategy of attempting to increasingly direct all the regional emergency workload into Drogheda, when it clearly is woefully short of basic resources, capacity and some vital expertise. In my opinion there is no expectation that the hospital can cope no matter what interim structure or working arrangements are put in place. It is abundantly clear to the vast majority of front line healthcare staff, including local management staff, that the Teamwork Transformation projects have and will inevitably fail. This is due not only to the fact that the present plan is unrealistic but also because many vital front line staff have been excluded by design from the "so-called consultation process". Their medical and nursing experience and advice has been largely disregarded by the planners and decision makers.

I have not come across any healthcare colleague in this region who will say that there has been any significant improvement on the ground within any of the three hospitals in Drogheda, Dundalk or Navan in the past 18 months. Central management's policy of using and depending on external experts and on hand-picked selective advisors to push its agenda has been most unwise and has resulted in peer conflict, dismay and anger throughout the hospital service.

From my perspective as a senior consultant with some management expertise I see no merit in the current course being pursued. There is no interim solution short of a new regional hospital. Until such is in place it seems to me that the only safe option is to maintain and resource the three local hospitals to a level sufficient to deliver a safe stand-alone twenty four hour general acute medical service. In my view it is also prudent at this stage to reconsider and maintain a safe twenty four hour acute general surgical surgery service in Navan. As things stand there is a perception that both Navan and Dundalk are being deprived of the basic resources necessary to cope with their respective workloads.

The HSE at this juncture should revise its medium term objective for the next two years and concentrate on ensuring all three hospitals are made clean and safe.

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