A commitment from the Taoiseach that all smaller hospitals will continue to have 24-hour medical cover into the future runs contrary to what is proposed in the Hanly report on hospital reorganisation, a number of doctors claimed yesterday. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports.
The commitment, given by Mr Ahern at the Fianna Fáil Ardfheis, effectively overturned what was agreed policy as the Government has adopted the Hanly report, said Clare GP Dr Tom Nolan. He wondered whether the Government had stopped talking to Hanly or vice versa, he said.
Dr John Barton, a consultant cardiologist at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe, said the comments meant he now had a major problem with the Government in terms of trust.
"Let's take Nenagh and Ennis. Hanly has recommended that there will not be 24-hour cover in those hospitals but the Minister [for Health and Children\] in the past week has said there will be 24-hour cover, so it appears to me the Minister and the Government, in terms of politics, is moving away from Hanly. There is another agenda, there is another track . . . I don't trust them anymore. It seems to me that Government is more interested in your vote than it is in you and they care more about your vote than they care about your health," he said.
The issue of 24-hour medical cover and 24-hour A&E services at smaller hospitals, threatened in the Hanly report, has been the subject of widespread criticism in communities whose hospitals would be affected. Dr Barton said he believed Mr Ahern's comments were an attempt to placate people in these areas in advance of the June local elections.
The Mayo GP and Independent TD, Dr Jerry Cowley, said the Taoiseach's comments were "backtracking of the highest order".
Speaking at a press conference hosted by the new Health Services Action Group in Kill, Co Kildare, he quoted from page 68 of the Hanly report which said: "Ultimately there should not be a requirement for on-site medical presence overnight or at weekends, but the logistics of this will clearly take some time to implement." The report went on to give examples of how medical cover could be provided overnight through the transitional phase. It could, it said, be provided by on-site call cover by doctors in training, GPs, a combination of the two, or by senior clinicians in the major hospital providing telephone consultation as required.
"That's what Hanly has in store for the people of Ireland. Telephone consultations. Joe Duffy how are ya. That is the reality of the situation," he said.
Labour senator Ms Kathleen O'Meara, who has played a major role in the setting up of the new Health Services Action Group, warned that 24-hour medical cover was not the same as 24-hour A&E cover.
Health economist Ms Catherine McNamara said the authors of the Hanly report had cautioned against cherry picking from their report, that all or none of it should be implemented. She said Mr Ahern's comments were therefore "quite misleading".
The retired consultant cardiologist Dr Maurice Nelligan also accused Mr Ahern of being misleading.
He said he heard him speak about a world-class health service at the ardfheis and it made him wonder what world he was talking about. "It certainly wasn't ours," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said last evening the Minister had taken on board the concerns of the people and had directed that 24-hour medical cover be provided in all hospitals "as a basic principle" even after the reforms.
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