Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney.

The HSE has accepted the key recommendations of the Horwath-Teamwork review of acute services in Cork and Kerry, which proposed a single health care system for the region. A key principle is that, while no hospital in the region will close, all hospitals will fundamentally change the services delivered to their communities and how those services are provided as part of the region-wide delivery of health care.

Professor John Higgins was appointed earlier this year as clinical director for the reconfiguration of services in the south and is addressing this task on a consultative basis. As part of the reconfiguration process, the HSE reviewed the organisation of regional emergency services. The review, published in November, was carried out by clinical staff and chaired by the director of emergency medicine for Cork and Kerry. Its recommendations, by clearly defining a regional emergency service, will allow for development of an integrated system with better response times, improved medical outcomes and patient experiences, and a resource base focused on need.

Due to the specific demographic and geographic challenges in Kerry, the review recommends that the emergency department in Kerry General Hospital should continue to provide full-time emergency care as part of the Cork and Kerry network, connected by common procedures and practices, guided by the regional consultant team and with ICT links to the regional level 1 trauma centre at Cork University Hospital.

Kerry General Hospital is the second largest acute hospital in the southern hospitals group. The emergency department had 34,230 patient attendances in 2008 and has had approximately 30,650 attendances so far this year. Approximately 70% of inpatients are admitted through the emergency department. Attendances are second only to Cork University Hospital, and there are no significant trolley waits. The emergency department currently comprises a locum emergency medicine consultant, six non-consultant hospital doctors, five clinical nurse managers and 19.1 whole-time equivalent staff nurses, as well as 24-hour clerical support and other non-nursing supports.

A key policy objective of Government is to move from a consultant-led to a consultant-delivered service, with increased availability of senior clinical decision makers to treat and discharge patients. In this context the HSE is currently considering the filling of the vacant emergency consultant post in Kerry General Hospital on a permanent basis.

I assure the House that the Executive is addressing the issue raised by the Deputy. It is confident, pending completion of the wider regional reorganisation to which I have referred, that it will be in a position to put in place the clinical resources to ensure that the emergency department at the hospital continues to meet the needs of the population.

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