Super-hospital planned for Mid-West
The HSE has stated that plans for a super-hospital in the North East would not be rolled out nationwide. But a new tender asking for a review of hospital services in the Mid-West region puts those assurances in doubt
Despite government and HSE assurances that the North East's ‘super-hospital' will not be duplicated in other parts of the country, Village has learned that the HSE has tendered for similar service reviews in the Mid-West and South-East after the upcoming election.
Following initial applications in late-December 2006, Teamwork Consultancy Services – the independent firm whose report ‘Improving Safety and Achieving Better Standards: an action plan for the North-East' has become a blueprint for the controversial North East service changes and planned regional super-hospital – was awarded the rights to a “Mid West review of services” tender at the start of this year.
Focusing on the “benefits and risks associated with the provision of acute hospital services” on six separate sites, the safety of transferring critically-ill patients significant distances, and the “capacity, usage and employment” of various hospital services throughout the region, the scope of the Mid West tender involves many of the same issues at the heart of the North East review.
Under the initial tender timeline, the UK firm and its partners Howarth Consulting Ireland were to provide an initial report to the HSE in late-April/early May. However, despite a series of “informal fact-finding missions” between 19-22 February at various hospitals throughout the region, it is understood that the plans will not now be announced until early summer, at which point similar moves in the South East will be accelerated.
During the publication of the North East Teamwork report, the HSE said the region's super-hospital plans would not be rolled-out to the rest of the country, a claim that was reiterated by a spokesperson to Village.
Although this tender does not specifically mention that it could lead to a super-hospital, the review of services being undertaken is similar to the one that occurred in the North East. Communities in Monaghan, Cavan, Louth and Meath have repeatedly stated that the plans for their local hospitals will soon be imposed across Ireland. Patients in the North-East believe these new reviews have long been planned as a way to introduce service changes called for under the Hanly report.
Since the North East plans emerged, a series of HSE expert groups and outside-tender reports have resulted in a growing list of controversial decisions to downgrade acute services in the troubled North East area and replace them with a regional ‘super-hospital' by 2015. Already, Monaghan Hospital has been informed that its emergency services are to be replaced by a nurse-led minor-injuries unit, while further alterations to specialist services in Cavan, Navan, Drogheda and Dundalk are being finalised, resulting in significant criticism from local communities.
In early 2005 the HSE established an expert taskforce with responsibility for deciding how the region's health service should be reformed, which in turn recommended an outside consultancy tender on the matter, eventually won by Teamwork. Now, a third layer to the decision is in place, with another tender on the location of the new facility advertised at the start of this year.
The new tender asks for a detailed report on potential sites, planning difficulties, and patient access throughout the region. Applications for the tender are currently being evaluated, with a 12-18 month contract expected to be awarded within the next two months.
The HSE and Minister for Health Mary Harney have stated that these decisions are based on best-international practice and that the presence of independent consultancy firms has created an increased level of transparency.