Hospital unit closure will see 20 ops a week cancelled

Twenty patients per week will not now be operated on at the orthopaedic unit in Our Lady"s Hospital, Navan, because of cutbacks by the Health Service Executive (HSE) in the unit"s services. Lead clinician Mr Declan Reidy said there were also fears among staff about the long-term existence of the unit, which serves Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan, because of the restrictions imposed by the health authority. He also expressed staff concern surrounding the resultant curbs on the training of medical staff at the hospital. The HSE announced that from Monday of this week, the orthopaedic theatres at Our Lady"s would not be in use on Wednesdays and Fridays and that the department would close from 12th December to 31st December next. This comes on top of a complete five-week closure which took place from late July to late August this year. Seven consultant orthopaedic surgeons and four consultant anaesthetists at Our Lady"s have strongly criticised the HSE moves, saying that a 40 per cent cutback in the services, which started this week, would severely impact on at least some of the 380,000 people in the four counties served by the Navan unit. Mr Reidy said yesterday (Tuesday) that a great deal of discontent and concern had been expressed by consultants about this recent closure, which came so soon after a five-week closure of the service from late July to late August this year. He said they were especially concerned that, as the closure would extend into December, the unit would not re-open in January. 'We are extremely concerned about the situation and we want to highlight this very serious deterioration in the service offered to members of the public,' he said. The consultant surgeon said that orthopaedic elective surgery was not some 'optional extra' to be supplied in good times and denied in bad. 'It is about relief of pain, correction of deformity, and restoration of mobility. It is an essential service.' He went on: 'Arthritic pain in our patients is severe. This curtailment will result in 20 less patients being treated per week. The proposal specifically limits the number of joint replacements. This is a procedure that arthritic patients 'live for". As clinicians, we are obliged to advocate for our patients.' Mr Reidy said that staff at the hospital were very disappointed that this region was being treated more harshly than others. 'The country is served by 12 elective orthopaedic surgery centres. No other region faces a cutback as severe as the north-east. This drastic cutback clearly constitutes the geographic rationing of an essential service. It is unfair. 'It is also unfair on the dedicated team of nursing, medical, allied health professionals, and ancillary staff who have contributed to the development of an excellent unit and who take pride in being part of an efficient productive service. It undermines the confidence of the community in a service that they have come to rely on. Interrupting the service damages its reputation,' he added. The curtailment of service 'makes no economic sense', the Navan consultants said in a statement. 'The average cost to the exchequer for a patient to have a hip replacement operation in Navan is €5,000. The cost to the exchequer (through the NTPF) for a patient to be sent outside the region for a hip replacement operation is €12,000.' Mr Reidy said, on behalf of the consultants, that the training of medical staff was being jeopardised by the cutbacks. He said some staff of the hospital had skills which were specific to the orthopaedic unit. To take those people away from those duties placed a severe limitation on those skills, involving them in retraining for new tasks, and involving further training and updating as they returned to an orthopaedic speciality. Meath West Fine Gael TD Damien English said the Government had identified the orthopaedic theatre in Navan as a 'soft touch' in their 'ruthless efforts to administer cutbacks to front line health services in the north-east region'. He added: 'I am dismayed at the decision to allow HSE bosses to share in over €1 million in annual pay bonuses while these same bosses have presided over massive budget overruns to the extent that there are now more cutbacks in our hospital services. I am publicly asking for the HSE to give me a breakdown of the pay cost involved for these reduced hours. It is amazing that the patient must suffer first under this FF-led Government instead of the beast that is HSE management.'