REORGANISATION:THERE SHOULD be no further reduction in services at local hospitals across the State until a new minister for health is appointed following the general election, Fine Gael's health spokesman Dr James Reilly said yesterday.
He said the reorganisation of acute hospital services by the HSE should be put on hold until the new minister had an opportunity to review all the proposed changes.
“I certainly know that my party does not agree with what is going on and I’m sure any new minister would want the opportunity afforded to them to review these changes before any more services are withdrawn,” he said.
He has already written to HSE West requesting it not to proceed with plans to downgrade Roscommon County Hospital. He did not receive an acknowledgement. He hasn’t written to the HSE about its proposals to withdraw services from other hospitals but believes all reconfiguration of services should stop.
“I see a bright future for Roscommon and other county hospitals like that in addressing waiting lists,” he said.
It was extraordinary, he added, that people from Roscommon were being sent to Dublin and Galway for surgery such as hernia repair when there was clear capacity locally to treat them. He said at the same time hospitals such as Beaumont and the Mater, which are national centres for neurosurgery and transplant surgery, are performing hernia repairs and colonoscopies.
“It’s akin to sending a 10-year-old Volkswagen into the Ferrari service centre for your regular service . . . We want to treat the patient at the lowest level of complexity in a timely, safe, efficient manner and as near as home as possible,” he said.
The HSE last night declined to comment.