CAMPAIGNERS OPPOSED to the transfer of orthopaedic services from the last public hospital on the northside of Cork city have begun a petition to press the Health Service Executive to reverse the decision.
The Campaign for a Real Public Health Service has launched the petition for improved services at St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital in Gurranabraher following a protest at the hospital last week by about 300 staff, retired staff, patients and former patients.
Spokesman for the campaign, the Socialist Party’s Cllr Mick Barry, said the group wanted to see the HSE reverse its decision to transfer orthopaedic surgery from St Mary’s to the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital.
“We’ve launched a petition asking people to support the retention of orthopaedic services and expansion of public health services at St Mary’s and to give a commitment not to vote for any Fianna Fáil or Green Party candidate in the next election until that is done,” he said.
Cllr Barry said the decision to transfer orthopaedic services from St Mary’s represented one of the most serious blows to Cork’s northside since a Fianna Fáil government under Charlie Haughey closed the North Infirmary in the 1980s.
The proposed transfer of orthopaedic services from St Mary’s to the South Infirmary Victoria was revealed last month as part of the HSE South’s controversial reconfiguration of acute hospital services in Cork and Kerry.
According to Pat Healy, regional director of operations HSE South, the transfer of orthopaedic services from St Mary’s to the South Infirmary Victoria will mean patients will have enhanced treatment or surgery for spine or skeletal injuries and deformities.
The fact that the service is being moved from a standalone site at St Mary’s to the South Infirmary, which has other complementary orthopaedic specialities such as rheumatology and anaesthetics, will better serve patients needs, he said.
The HSE has given assurances to the 220 staff working at St Mary’s that there will be no job losses and it remains committed to future use of the hospital, the last public hospital on the northside, as a health complex, said Mr Healy.
Mental health services, intellectual disability, ambulance, outreach maternity and health centre services will continue at the site while a newly built 50-bed community nursing unit costing €8 million is due to open on the site later this year, he said.
However, local Labour TD Kathleen Lynch has expressed concern that the HSE would not honour its pledge to develop mental health, intellectual disability, outreach maternity and other services at the site as the agency did not have a good track record in this regard.