Taoiseach called on to explain cutbacks at MGH

Taoiseach called on to clarify cutbacks at Mayo General Hospital


Report targets MGH for multi-million cuts in maternity

Áine Ryan

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny needs to answer questions about why Mayo General Hospital, in his home town of Castlebar, has been targeted to take the brunt of proposed cuts to a cluster of hospitals in the west and the north-west. That is the view of Sinn Féin Cllr Thérèse Ruane who argues that a proposed €6.9 million cut in the annual budget of the hospital is ‘almost 50 per cent of the mooted €16 million cuts for the six hospitals in the designated North and West cluster group’.
Cllr Ruane said that clearly services will be cut to facilitate such a swingeing reduction in the budget.  She argued that such a cut would bring the annual budget down to €76.3 million from its 2013 figure of €84.2 million.
“This comes when the system is on its knees [and] the next step is not just to cut back services, it has to be that services will be withdrawn to facilitate such a drastic cut. What service is it that will be cut? Is it A&E, maternity or orthopaedic services? We need answers,” she said.
Cllr Ruane continued: “We’ve had enough waffle from Government and the HSE to date, saying how the MGH will not be downgraded. I’d like the Taoiseach to explain exactly how MGH will manage to run on such an extensive cut? How will it be implemented?”
Over recent months, The Mayo News has revealed details of a confidential HSE report which moots the possible closure of four obstetric units in the west and north-west. Like with cancer services, there appears to be plans to make University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) a hub for certain obstetric services. The identified units are Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, Sligo General, possibly Letterkenny and MGH.  
While the HSE has said no decisions have been made to date, the study, carried out by consultants, the Health Partnership, clearly states that significant changes are needed to optimise the delivery of services.
One key recommendation is the introduction of a centralised system of booking for expectant mothers and the rotation of staff through each area.
The HSE’s Chief Operating Officer of the West/North West Hospitals Group, Tony Canavan said last week that no decision had been taken yet and that feasibility studies would have to be carried out first.

Review
RESPONDING, Labour Cllr Harry Barrett  has urged that MGH be excluded from the review of maternity units.
“Reading from the report we find that while the recommended staffing ratio is one obstetrician to 350 births, the actual ratio ranges from 1:442 to 1:685 in the five units. The ratio of midwives is 1:39 when it should be 1:29, the report says. This would suggest that the problem for the Minister [for Health] boils down to maintaining standards with a staffing ratio that is heading into unsafe territory,” Cllr Barrett said  
Fianna FΡil’s Seanad spokesman on Health, Senator Marc McSharry said: “This report clearly outlines six options, each of which includes the closure of consultant obstetrician-led maternity services at certain regional hospitals.  The maternity units at four of the five hospitals in the group are under threat: Portiuncula, Castlebar, Sligo and Letterkenny.  It means that all but University Hospital Galway risks a downgrading of its maternity services.”
Sinn Féin’s European Parliament candidate in the region, Matt Carthy, said that while nobody was ‘denying that these services need to be vastly improved’,  clearly ‘a knee-jerk reaction to close, or as the HSE say ‘reconfigure’ the units should be rejected outright’.
“People in rural Ireland are already under pressure and fearful for their futures. This news will create further uncertainty for women and their families in the west and north west. I am calling on the Minister for Health to bin this report and start over. We need a world-class maternity and health service as a right, not closed doors.”
More than 10,000 babies are born in the west and northwest each year, representing 15 per cent of the national total. Currently, women do not have to travel more than 60 minutes to a maternity unit but this could increase to 80 minutes if services are reconfigured.