This article is from page 13 of the 2008-04-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
CLARE’S GPs believe that the death knell has already sounded, albeit very lowly and slowly, for acute serv- ices at Ennis General Hospital.
Following a meeting of some of the county’s most experienced general practitioners and hospital consult- ants, the medics issued a detailed statement, predicting the hospital’s death by a thousand cuts.
The doctors have no belief or con- fidence that 24-hour acute medical, surgical, accident and emergency and intensive care services would continue at Mid Western Regional
Hospital Ennis (MWRH-Ennis).
The meeting strongly maintained that should the hospital lose any fur- ther services, it would be impossible to continue as an acute hospital.
“All available evidence to date in- dicates that Government health strat- egy 1s to centralise all acute services in Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick (MWRH-Limerick) and its proposed co-located private hospital. Acute services now provided in En- nis and Nenagh will be withdrawn,” the statement issued by the Clare fac- ulty of the Irish College of General Practitioners stated.
The statement outlined how the
consultant staff of the hospital wrote to the health minister two years ago, stating that it was unsafe to continue practising without a CT scanner. The scanner has not been provided, and the collective opinion is that it will not now be installed.
“The persistent failure to address these concerns serves to illustrate the lack of interest and commitment which exists within HSE manage- ment to address the serious clinical concerns of senior medical staff,” the statement read. “Further evidence of the lack of interest in the develop- ment of services at MWRH-Ennis is indicated by the dereliction of HSE
management in replacing consultant staff who have resigned or retired.” During the past six years, the radi- ology department has been forced to operate using the services of a series of locum radiologists. The general physician who retired five years ago has not been replaced, and the med- ics have little hope that the general
surgeon who retired in January and the second surgeon to retire later this year will be replaced.
“The closure of 24-hour services will be gradual and final. The timeframe for this process is uncertain, but it will probably occur over the next four years, but possibly sooner,” the Clare Faculty of the ICGP predicted.