ENNIS GENERAL HOSPITAL:PEOPLE IN Co Clare are now turning their backs on Ennis General Hospital since a "hatchet job" was done on it in a recent report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), the IMO conference heard.
Dr Moosajee Bhamjee, a consultant psychiatrist and former TD for the county, said a large number of people had lost confidence in the hospital following the publication of the report, which branded certain services at the hospital unsafe. He said they were now voting with their feet and travelling instead to Limerick Regional Hospital at all hours. “Limerick is now being flooded with Clare people,” he said.
It had been anticipated Clare patients in need of emergency care would only travel to Limerick between the hours of 8pm and 8am, the hours during which the emergency department at Ennis hospital is now closed.
Dr Michael Kelleher, a GP in the county, told delegates “a hatchet job” causing “serious if not irreparable” damage had been done to the hospital by the Hiqa report, which was ordered after two women with breast cancer – Ann Moriarty and Edel Kelly – were misdiagnosed.
He pointed out that the hospital had been systematically deprived of resources over the years: its bed numbers had been reduced; there had been a refusal to replace permanent consultants; and a refusal to upgrade diagnostics. Now its AE hours were reduced, acute surgical services would come to an end in July and acute medical services would go, he said, in 2010.
He said there had been little consultation with GPs on these issues and no transfer of resources to help GPs pick up the slack, only a threat to cut their fees further by the Government.
Outgoing IMO president Dr Martin Daly claimed if the same safety criteria applied by Hiqa to Ennis hospital were applied to many of the smaller private hospitals, built with tax breaks provided by the Government, they would have to be closed down.
Meanwhile, the conference condemned the decision by Minister for Health Mary Harney not to make the cervical cancer vaccine available to young girls because of the cost involved. Dr Cathal Martin, a GP in north Dublin, said the cost of the vaccine was a drop in the ocean compared to the amount of money now being used to bankroll banks and developers.
The meeting was also told that public hospitals are facing a loss in income of up to €150 million this year as a result of the number of consultants who have opted to stop seeing private patients.
Up to 25 per cent of consultants have now opted for what are called “public patient only” contracts and any patient, even those with private health insurance, who is admitted to a public hospital in an emergency situation under these consultants will not be entitled to a private room. In his first address the newly-elected IMO president Dr John Morris, who is currently finishing his GP training in Galway, referred to the HSE’s plans to cut overtime rates and a range of allowances to junior doctors, otherwise referred to as non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs), in a bid to balance its books. He said the targeting of NCHDs was “typical of the health service ethos of protecting management at the expense of front-line staff”. He said junior doctors would help find cost savings, but not at the expense of training and patient care.
He added: “The HSE has managed to unite our 4,000-plus members to the point where they would rather down tools and walk away than to continue to work under the threats now facing them.”
A High Court challenge by the IMO and six junior doctors to the proposed changes to their pay and conditions is due to be heard before the end of this month.