HOSPITAL CONSULTANTS in the northeast have “grave concerns” about the “rushed” transfer of services from the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
They believe the changes “will result in unacceptable standards of patient care in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital”.
Their concerns are outlined in a letter sent to the HSE’s national director of quality and clinical care, Dr Barry White, last week by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA).
In its letter the IHCA says consultants in the Louth/Meath hospital group have grave concerns that services are being closed in Dundalk “without the proper implementation of improved facilities, staffing and other resources in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital”.
It adds: “While in principle we support the proper transformation of acute hospital facilities, in this instance senior HSE management have not put in place the agreed changes, and therefore it is the considered view of the clinical leads that an appropriate and acceptable standard of patient care and safety cannot be delivered after certain services are closed in Louth County Hospital and moved to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.”
It also says the transformation plan outlined the need to open the new emergency department and medical assessment unit in Drogheda as well as other key changes “some six months prior to the transfer of acute inpatient care” and emergency care from Dundalk. However this was all being done at short notice.
The new emergency department at Drogheda hospital opened last week and the around-the-clock emergency department at Dundalk hospital closed this week.
The IHCA says in its letter, which has been copied to Minister for Health Mary Harney and HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm, that to date “the Louth/Meath general manager has not been in a position to confirm if acceptable and appropriate standards of patient care and safety will be provided following implementation of the contingency plan or the transformation plan on July 1st”.
“Instead the management response is that closing services in Louth County and transferring them to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is ‘the least worst option from a patient care perspective’. This reply fails to confirm if the changes are being planned on the basis of acceptable patient care and safety.”
The IHCA met Dr White last Friday to discuss its concerns and it said yesterday few of them were allayed at that meeting.
The HSE last night said that Dr White had “engaged” with the Dublin North East region over some weeks to ensure a range of adequate services were in place, including medical bed capacity, during the transition of services.