Dáil debates

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Midland Regional Hospital: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

 

8:15 pm

Photo of Liam TwomeyLiam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately that sort of thinking stayed in the HSE for more than a decade, but it was not an overt policy. Therefore, hospitals such as Portlaoise hospital were being starved of funding but no one quite knew what was the management policy that was being implemented. It was, therefore, only a matter of time before a crisis like this was going to happen. This is a much more proper approach to health services. We are linking hospitals such as Portlaoise hospital with tertiary teaching hospitals such as the Coombe hospital. We are hoping the high standards of training and governance in a hospital such as the Coombe hospital will come back down to a hospital such as Portlaoise hospital and we can continue to provide the type of care that mothers need in Portlaoise, that is close to their doors and safe and dependable for expectant mothers.

This needs to be done not just in maternity services. This needs to be done in paediatric services and surgical services. To some degree, it has happened over the past number of years in surgical services as a result of how we have managed the cancer treatment services. The new cancer treatment programme rationalised where a person could have surgery for major cancers down to eight centres. Some people feel this should still be reduced to five centres. This means that a lot of major surgery was concentrated into large centres, where people were directly referred from their small hospital for major surgery but other minor procedures were safely and carefully done in the smaller hospitals. This made the smaller hospitals viable.

I am sure Deputy Fitzmaurice realises that there has been a lot of aggravation about Roscommon hospital, but the first people who reported the safety issues at Roscommon hospital were the consultants there. They stated clearly that it was unsafe to practise medicine at Roscommon General Hospital at the time.

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