Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Okay. Will he clarify for how many hours the CT scanner is open in the hospital?

The real concern is about the downgrade. We already understand the ambulance protocols that are in place. If there is a serious accident on a motorway, even within a mile of Portlaoise hospital, those with broken limbs will be sent to Tullamore, as it deals with orthopaedic issues. If one has a stroke in County Laois, one goes to Naas. Those protocols are already in place and people are satisfied with them. To say that the facility will be for medical patients with minor injuries, as is happening at Navan, is essentially a downgrade.

If the service is scaled back from 24-hour to 12-hour, people will stop going to the hospital in the evening because they might not be seen by eight o’clock. The regional manager has suggested that people who are not in the immediate vicinity of Portlaoise should be going somewhere else to start with. There is a plan in place, whether it is on the Minister’s desk or not - and he should know about it - to reduce the numbers attending Portlaoise hospital so that the HSE can ultimately say the service is not sustainable in the interests of patient safety. Once one starts reducing the hours from 24, one is on the slippery slope.

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