Delay blow for new regional hospital

The decision by the HSE to postpone the building of a new regional hospital for the north-east has come as a major blow to supporters of the critical healthcare project in Meath. However, the news has come as no surprise to anyone working in the healthcare area who knew that there was no planning in progress on the project over the last three years, a general practitioner said yesterday (Tuesday) as he launched a multi-pronged attack on the HSE and the Government in the wake of the news. He was joined in the criticism by Fine Gael TDs Damien English and Shane McEntee. The HSE confirmed yesterday that the new hospital was unlikely to be built for several years. Navan had been chosen as the location for the new hospital and it had been planned that the 750-bed institution would be up and running by 2015. However, that target will not now be met, the HSE has admitted. Kells GP Dr Peter Wahlrab said that if the hospital was to have been delivered within the timeframe proposed by the HSE (2015), there would need to have been ongoing planning over the last three years. "Everybody who works in healthcare knew that there was no planning going on. It doesn't surprise anyone that this announcement has been made. This is yet one more failure in health care provision," he said. He said that the pledge to build the hospital had resulted from agreement between the HSE and all stakeholders to push forward with the Transformation Programme for health services. When the HSE published a report in 2006 on the reorganisation of health services in the region, a central recommendation was the construction of the new regional hospital. The hospital had been included in the HSE National Development Plan for 2009-2013. As part of that plan, many services were to be transferred from smaller hospitals - including Navan, Dundalk and Monaghan - to the larger instituions in the area - Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda and Cavan General. The HSE said that, given the current economic climate, the regional hospital would not go forward within the lifetime of this plan. It said that the project would be included in the next plan after 2013. However, Dr Wahlrab said the promise of a regional hospital was what had swayed stakeholders, including the GPs, to agree to the Transformation Programme. "The project is now undeliverable within any reasonable period," he said, "Professor (Brendan) Drumm himself came to the meeting at which the Transformation Programme was announced." It now appeared that no-one would be working on this project before 2013. "Given the history of the State's provision of hospitals and the long gestation period for these projects, it would be easy to say that many of the practitioners at that meeting will be long gone out of practice before any such hospital is delivered," he predicted. Personally, he said he had given up any hope of the State delivering on the regional hospital. "Even within the period of the Tiger economy, I had serious doubts whether it would be delivered. Now that we are in the post-Tiger period, I see no hope." He said that Monaghan services, apart from day care and step-down beds, had ceased on 31st July. "We are awaiting the completion of the new accident and emergency unit at Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda - which is behind schedule by almost a year - and that is the only thing giving a reprieve to the downgrading of services in Navan and Dundalk," he added. He said that "in a curious way, the notorious inefficiencies of the HSE are giving that temporary reprieve to Navan and Dundalk". Dr Walrahb said he dreaded to think what may happen "when the 'flu really hits". The capacity of existing hospitals in the region had been badly compromised. "The new A&E in Drogheda is due to open in the autumn. There is no staffing provision for it. There are alarming figures about attendances - it has the same attendances as the Mater in Dublin, yet with half the staff." He recalled with some irony the words of Minister Dermot Ahern who had said when Navan was announced as the location for the regional hospital that "not a red cent" would be available for the project. Dr Wahlrab said: "This, despite the fact that Meath has the largest population in the four counties in the north-east; Meath has the best road infrastructure; and it is the most central location for the regional hospital." Deputy Damien English said the postponement of the delivery of the new regional hospital was a major blow for Meath and all the people in the north-east. He believed that the project should be driven forward with the use of capital funding from any available source. "The location has been approved and I feel that, at the very least, the Govwernment should go ahead with the planning stages of this project," he added. Deputy Shane McEntee said that he would be calling on the Fine Gael party to include the new regional hospital as part of its policy on a healthcare system for the north-east.