Speech
by Brendan Howlin, TD on the future of accident and
emergency services at
Wexford General
Hospital
.
Dáil
Éireann Adjournment Debate – Wednesday 20 May 2009
Deputy Brendan Howlin:
I
am grateful for the opportunity to raise an important
issue for the constituency of Wexford, that is, the
future of accident and emergency services at Wexford
General Hospital.
I do not often seek to raise
matters on the Adjournment. I do it only when matters
are of critical importance to my constituency. I welcome
the Minister of State, Deputy Áine Brady, but I regret
that the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy
Harney, is not here to answer a simple and
straightforward question.
First, let me give some
background to
Wexford General
Hospital
.
Wexford General
Hospital
is one of the busiest hospitals in the country. It has a
broad range of specialties, including one of the busiest
maternity units in the country. It caters for a
population in
County
Wexford
of 140,000 permanent residents and perhaps double that
number during the summer months. It is an unusual
hospital in that its peak activity is in the summer.
It is the only acute accident and
emergency 24-hour service geographically between
Loughlinstown in south
County
Dublin
near Bray and
Waterford General
Hospital
. That swathe of population between south
Dublin
and
Waterford
, the populous counties of Wicklow and Wexford, are
serviced by Wexford General
Hospital
.
I have repeatedly asked about the
future of the accident and emergency services in
Wexford General
Hospital
because I have been informed directly by the staff
involved that preparations are far advanced for the
termination of the 24-hour accident and emergency
service by the end of this year. Nurses have been told
not to look for night time rostering at the end of this
year and emergency ambulance personnel are being added
to and upskilled to provide a different type of service.
When I have asked the HSE
directly - I am fearful that the Minister of State has
been provided with the same script to deliver to this
House tonight - it states that there are no plans yet
agreed or drawn up on any service or hospital in the
south east. I simply do not believe that because the
facts on the ground are quite different.
The people of Wexford deserve to
know whether plans are being put in train by this expert
group that is looking at the realignment of services
across the south east, and whether a decision has
already been made to end the permanent 24-hour accident
and emergency cover operated by
Wexford General
Hospital
. If that is happening, it is the beginning of the end
of the full facilities to be provided by this essential
and critical hospital.
I want a clear and unambiguous
answer from the Minister tonight. The HSE, overblown and
all as it is, is still subject to the Department of
Health and Children and policy is ultimately determined
by the Minister. The simple question to which I want an
answer tonight is this. What is the future for 24-hour,
365-day accident and emergency cover in
Wexford General
Hospital
? Please, do not give me obscurantist answers about
surveys, analyses, committees or commissions. What is
happening and what is the Department of Health and
Children’s policy?
Minister
of State at the Department of the Health and Children
(Deputy Áine Brady):
I
thank Deputy Howlin and I will be taking this
Adjournment debate on behalf of my colleague, the
Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney.
Wexford General
Hospital
provides comprehensive acute services to the local
population of 130,000 and to the thousands of tourists
who visit Wexford each year. The hospital benefits from
a committed workforce that, during 2009, will treat an
estimated 63,900 patients. More than half of these will
present as emergency department attendances. In
addition, an estimated 56,730 will attend the hospital
on an outpatient basis.
Wexford General
Hospital
has strong partnerships with colleagues working in
primary, community and continuing care sectors and aims
to provide patients with fully integrated services. In
line with the National Service Plan 2009 and in
accordance with the HSE transformation programme, the
HSE will be reviewing the current configuration of acute
hospital services in the south east. A steering group
has been put in place to this end and is tasked with
developing a plan for hospital reconfiguration that will
deliver optimal, cost effective, easily and readily
accessible and high quality services through centres of
excellence. The membership of the steering group
comprises the four clinical directors, one from each
hospital, and the hospital network manager.
All hospitals in the south
eastern hospital group, consisting of
Wexford General
Hospital
,
Waterford
Regional
Hospital
,
South
Tipperary General
Hospital
and St. Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny, will be included in
the plan for the revised model of care. In this regard,
no decisions regarding the roles of services in any
hospitals will be taken until this plan has been
completed through a process of broad based consultation
within the services.
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