Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I raise a matter of huge importance to east Galway, where there is grave fear that Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe will be downgraded. This concern has come to the fore because of a public demonstration to be held next Sunday in St. Michael's Square, Ballinasloe, which I expect will be attended by thousands of people.

Portiuncula general hospital is important to five or six adjoining counties. The hospital serves counties Galway, Roscommon, Offaly, Longford and Laois, as well as parts of County Clare and several other areas. The people served by the hospital want a top-of-the-range surgical hospital with modern accident and emergency facilities and the preservation and extension of the hospital's wonderful maternity unit, which is the jewel in the crown and where a record number of babies were born in the past three years. The maternity unit is now regarded as one of the most up-to-date maternity facilities. We also want support for the day care services, cardiology department and all the facilities of a good general hospital. Not alone do we want to hold services at the hospital. We want them improved. We hope that the configuration of hospital services will include Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe at the level I mentioned.

One of the reasons the unions, many staff members and the general population of the area have become jittery in the past three or four weeks is that the attitude of the HSE seems to be that a new general manager is about to be appointed who will have direct responsibility for the University College Hospital Galway, Merlin Park University Hospital, Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe and Roscommon hospitals. It is felt rightly or wrongly that under those circumstances Ballinasloe Hospital may be downgraded.

A matter that seems to be cropping not only in Ballinasloe Hospital but in many other hospitals concerns the lines of communications from the top to bottom, namely from the HSE down to the various staffing levels. For some strange reason the HSE is not able to tell everybody concerned the story as it applies to him or her. There is always a section in an institution such as this that has not been well briefed about its future and people cannot be blamed for thinking the worst if they have not been told exactly what is happening. I hope that this matter will be addressed. With all means of communications available today, that should not be a problem. I spent three or four hours with representatives of the HSE at a meeting of Joint Committee on Health and Children yesterday dealing with the medical card fiasco and I do not believe the people in the HSE are listening to anybody.

I hope the Minister of State will be able to tell me tonight that this progressive hospital will continue on the graph it is on and that it will continue to provide the professional facilities we all want. It is a centre of excellence in terms of the service it provides. University College Hospital Galway is also a centre of excellence in its own right and we are lucky to have the two hospitals where they are located. I would like a commitment from the Minister of State tonight regarding this hospital, which would prove that the rumours believed by many people in the general area are not correct, but I have to be convinced of that. When one hears rumours sometimes murky work can be going on behind the scenes about which we do not know.

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney.

The Government is committed to ensuring the delivery and maintenance of the best quality health service possible and providing the highest standard of patient care in an effective and efficient way within the resources allocated. Portiuncula Hospital plays an important part in the HSE West network of acute hospitals and there are no plans to lessen its importance in the provision of services. It is an acute general and maternity hospital which provides a range of acute, diagnostic and support services to both adults and children in the catchment areas of east Galway, Roscommon, north Tipperary, Offaly and Westmeath. The hospital has a total of 197 beds - specifically, 173 inpatient and 24 day care beds.

Portiuncula Hospital benefits from a committed workforce that, throughout 2010 and in line with the hospital's service plan, is projected to provide services for over 10,000 inpatients, more than 7,000 day cases, 20,000 emergency presentations, 42,000 outpatient attendances and more than 2,000 births. The hospital also has strong partnerships with colleagues in the primary, community and continuing care sectors in order to provide patients with a fully integrated service.

The Government has shown its commitment to Portiuncula Hospital in recent years, with capital developments such as the new special care baby unit, the recent upgrading of the emergency department and the overhauling of the oncology day unit and the physiotherapy department in 2007. This demonstrates that the Government continues to see a very important role for the hospital as part of a high quality health service to the population of the region.

Work has also been undertaken in recent years to enhance collaboration between Portiuncula Hospital and Roscommon County Hospital in the provision of services. This is occurring, for example, in the re-configuration that is taking place of the surgical and anaesthetic departments of the two hospitals into a joint department of surgery and anaesthesia.

The HSE plans to recruit a general manager with responsibility for Galway University Hospital, Portiuncula Hospital and Roscommon County Hospital. This initiative involves the expansion of the current post of general manager at Galway University Hospital. It is designed to promote good co-ordination between hospitals. It is not about downgrading any hospital or reducing services. It is about improving management processes and thereby improving services for patients.

The appointment of a general manager with responsibility for the three hospitals concerned is also in line with the approach of the governance of acute hospitals recommended in the Health Information and Quality Authority's report on quality and safety of services at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Ennis, which was published in April 2009. This report identified integrated governance across hospital networks as an important factor in ensuring higher quality services for patients.

The HSE is committed to full engagement with all stakeholders in regard to this matter. The final interviews for the general manager post will not be held until the competition to appoint a regional director of operations in HSE West is concluded. This means that the regional director can take an active part in the selection process. I understand this process is due to be concluded shortly.

The HSE has already met the unions involved to discuss the context of the appointment of the general manager. It is due to have a further meeting with the unions in the near future.

The Minister is satisfied that the plan to recruit a general manager with responsibility for Galway University hospitals, Portiuncula Hospital and Roscommon County Hospital will enhance the capacity for collaboration in service provision, provide a more strategic approach to the management of the hospitals concerned and ensure the provision of better and safer services to the people of the region.

I wish to assure the House on the Minister's behalf that Portiuncula Hospital will continue to play a key role in the provision of hospital services to the population of east Galway and the other areas it serves.