War of words over MGH maternity services

War of words over MGH maternity services


Neill O'Neill

A war of words has erupted between Mayo County Councillors over the future of maternity services at Mayo General Hospital (MGH).
At last week’s meeting of the HSE Regional Health Forum West, Cllr Michael Kilcoyne raised the issue of a threat to maternity services in Castlebar, asking when the national report into maternity services will be published and whether MGH had made a submission to the report.
He was informed by Toy Canavan, Chief Operating Officer of the Saolta University Health Care Group, that the public consultation process on the report is ongoing until July 15 and the process of completing a national strategy should conclude by October 31.
Mr Canavan added that Mayo General Hospital is currently compiling its submission.
Cllr Kilcoyne reiterated his long-held belief that maternity services in Mayo General Hospital are under threat.

Concerns
Many patient waiting lists at Mayo General Hospital are the longest they have ever been, according to Cllr Kilcoyne.
Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday (Monday), Cllr Kilcoyne pointed to a report recommending the cessation of maternity services at the Castlebar hospital.
“There was a report done on maternity services in the west, and one of its suggestions was to discontinue maternity services at MGH,” he said.
“This report’s existence was denied, and then when we unearthed it plenty of people, including in Fine Gael, went running for cover and the report got merged into a national review. They are saying it will be with the Minister by October 31, but will he publish it? I say he will not until after the General Election.”
Cllr Kilcoyne’s comments were made in response to Fine Gael councillor Cyril Burke’s accusation that he was scaremongering.
 
‘Bad politics’
Taking aim at Cllr Kilcoyne, Cllr Burke yesterday said that ‘fear politics is bad politics’. He said that claims that the Maternity Unit at Mayo General Hospital is under threat after next year’s election were wholly untrue and would only serve to create fear in the county. In a direct swipe at Cllr Kilcoyne, he said the independent councillor’s claims are ‘repetitive, sustained and causing distress’.
“I have spoken with people in Minister Varadkar’s office who assure me that the report will be published before the end of the year. It remains one of the Minister’s 25 priorities set out when he took over the portfolio. I was also informed that there is absolutely no threat to the maternity services at the hospital, which the Minister himself visited during the Fine Gael National Conference in Castlebar in March.
“It is very frustrating that these inaccurate predictions are being made again and again by the very same public representative, Cllr Kilcoyne, who claimed the Maternity Unit would be closed down a number of months ago. In fact, the unit received renovations. He also claimed that the Male Medical Assessment Unit would be closed – another wrong prediction. He also claimed Mayo General Hospital would become a geriatric hospital – another wrong prediction.
“Fear and inaccuracy only benefits one person in all of this. We are proud of the wonderful services we have at Mayo General Hospital and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the dedicated staff at the hospital.
“We remain committed to the hospital and will not allow scaremongering take the place of substance in politics in Mayo,” he stated.

Roscommon closure
IN response, Cllr Kilcoyne said it was impossible to believe Cllr Burke or anybody in Fine Gael on matters of health.
“Councillor Burke is part of a party whose leader, An Taoiseach, gave a written commitment to the people of Roscommon that their A&E Department would not close. Yet shortly after Fine Gael took office in Government it closed. I do not want this to happen with maternity services at MGH,” he concluded.

Budget overrun
Mayo General Hospital ran approximately €1.1 million over budget for the first five months of this year. Expenditure at the hospital was €35,655,000 up to May 31, 2015, surpassing its  five-month budget of €34,537,000 by €1,118,000 or 3.24 percent.