REACTION:THE PUBLICATION of the Health Information and Quality Authority's report on Mallow General Hospital was greeted with relief by staff and local GPs yesterday who had feared the report would recommend removing many services and downgrading the facility.
Consultant anaesthetist Dr Mike Pead said hospital staff had been apprehensive but felt vindicated after the authority recognised in the report the quality of healthcare provided at Mallow in often difficult circumstances.
Dr Pead said staff had been “very upset and paranoid” when the authority first announced it was examining Mallow hospital. The only precedent had been the report on Ennis General Hospital, which led to a major restructuring and removal of services there.
However, the authority had shown great “sensitivity and professionalism” in its dealings with Mallow, and staff at the hospital felt they had been listened to. The report acknowledged the “extreme professionalism that is carried out in Mallow under quite difficult circumstances”.
Newmarket GP Dr Bertie Daly, one of more than 130 local GPs who have campaigned to save Mallow hospital, said the consensus among GPs was that the report had vindicated the “good work and the good name of Mallow General Hospital”, and that was to be welcomed.
Dr Daly said GPs shared the aim of both the authority and the Health Service Executive to strive for excellence. However, there was no “finishing line” to that aim, and it was important that the authority ensured there was balance in the system so that any services transferred from Mallow could be accommodated elsewhere.
There was a need to ensure that Cork University Hospital which, as a tertiary hospital, deals with critical procedures, had the necessary accommodation, rapid access and rapid intervention facilities, he said. If Cork University Hospital was to remain in this tertiary role, Mallow also had a role to play by taking on those less complex cases not dealt with in CUH, he added.
Cork East Labour TD and Minister for State, Seán Sherlock, welcomed the report’s confirmation that there was no specific complaint against any surgical or medical procedure in the hospital.
