This article is from page 2 of the 2007-07-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE HEALTH Service Executive is preparing to announce that accident and emergency departments at three hospitals in the mid west are to close and be replaced with “nurse lead mi- nor injuries units.”
According to sources, the depart- ments at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s voluntary hospital in Limerick City will be named as the three casualties of the Teamwork report, a review of accident and emergency departments nationwide by the British-based con- sultants. The announcement is ex- pected in the next three weeks.
The news comes just two months
after a document leaked to the media revealed that accident and emergen- cy departments in the north east of the country are also set to close.
The Teamwork report will recom- mend that accident and emergency services at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s be moved to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick. The facilities will instead be replaced by “nurse lead minor injury units.” It is not clear, however, whether these new units will be open on a 24-hour basis.
Clare Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, has called on the Government “to shred this report, live up to their election commitments or lives will be lost.”
Deputy Breen said, “If these reports are true, then Ennis hospital will ef- fectively become a 12-hour nurse-led injury clinic. Whilst acknowledging the outstanding role that nurses play in the hospital and the care and atten- tion given by them to their patients, the failure to provide 24-hour con- sultant-led accident and emergency will mean that lives will be lost”.
“Of course, it 1s no coincidence that the Dail is in recess when this report is set to be published.”
Meanwhile, the PRO of the Ennis General Hospital Development Com- mittee Councillor Brian Meaney said, “They are suggesting putting in an injuries unit and they should do
but it should operate in tandem with the existing 24 hour accident and emergency department which is al- ready stretched…
“We will fight this and if means marching on the Dail we will but we also have a number of imaginative civil disobedience protests we could mount,’ Mr Meaney said.
“If they think the HSE can intro- duce this policy unilaterally, without consulting politicians, like they did with the mammography unit in En- nis earlier this month, they will have to deal with a different reality in due course,” the councillor added.
A comment was still awaited from the HSE last night.