DELAYS IN providing a new building with state of the art accommodation for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients at St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin may yet be overcome if investment from the private sector is secured, Minister for Health Mary Harney said yesterday.
She explained that the State was currently providing primary care infrastructure “through private sector capital” and it would now have to examine “whether or not we have the same capacity to do that at St Vincent’s”.
She would be discussing the matter with the Health Service Executive after the April 7th budget was agreed, she said.
“On the new facility at St Vincent’s, which is a 120-bedded unit, we have to examine whether or not there is a different way of providing that. It doesn’t just affect St Vincent’s, it affects public infrastructure projects in health and education right across the country. If we haven’t got the money we clearly can’t spend the money,” she said.
“We’ve got to see what the potential is to do things in a more innovative and different way as far as key health projects are concerned.”
Last week the HSE confirmed that a promise it made in January 2008 to provide a new 120-bed facility with about 30 ensuite rooms for CF patients at St Vincent’s by 2010 would not be honoured. It confirmed funding for constructing the building would not now be available “until 2011 at the earliest”.
The news was greeted with shock by CF patients, who are in danger of picking up infections from other patients if not accommodated in single rooms.
St Vincent’s is the national referral centre for adult CF patients and it has eight ensuite rooms for the 360 CF patients attending, which is inadequate. These opened last August. A further six also due to come onstream last year have not yet opened but Ms Harney said yesterday they would open later this year.
The Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland’s (CFAI) national board held an extraordinary general meeting at the weekend to discuss the “devastating and soul-destroying news”. It wrote to Ms Harney and HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm seeking clarification in writing by 5pm yesterday on whether they would honour the 2008 promise.
In a statement last night the CFAI said the only response was a phone call at about 4pm to say that the Minister would not be able to deal with their query until today. At 4.40pm it also received “a generic email” from Prof Drumm’s office confirming receipt of their letter. The CFAI accused Ms Harney and Prof Drumm of showing contempt for CF patients and their families.
Seán O’Kennedy, national chairman of CFAI, said the association will be mounting a major campaign “to wage a war against this injustice and human rights issue”.
Orla Tinsley, a CF patient who has written on the plight of CF sufferers in the Republic, said: “We should not have to fight a battle to get basic facilities in our hospitals. . . where is our Obama?”
Ireland has the highest incidence of CF in the world but life expectancy among sufferers here is lower than in many other countries.