Public meeting on future of Portlaoise Hospital

The Princess Bride

madred006 wrote: »

Simple we cannot afford it so let it close keep the morgue open and outpatients clinic and have one centre of excellence in Tullamore .Sooner the better too.

I agree with you.
Most attendees at a&e have had neither an accident nor an emergency.
All GP practices should be better equiped to deal with small surgical emergencies ( suturing,dressings etc....), hospitals are merely poorly organised businesses at present in Ireland.
As it is, all orthopaedic (and most ENT)patients are refered to Tullamore anyway- plus major general surgeries refered to Dublin hospitals.
We would have a more efficent health service if people used it properly!!!!!

toby08

with that attitude I pray that you and your family are well and remain so.
due to the ongoing and longterm ilness of a member of family I probably have occasion to use portlaoise more than others.
there are quite a number of people in the same boat, I know individual cases dont matter but the impact of a reduction of services would mean severe hardship.it is very easy to cut services how about cutting HSE credit cards, have teleconferencing facilities it is cheaper than staying in expensive hotels.
oh sorry most of the phones are in use on international calls. Proper management and accountancy measures would make all the difference ,there are still areas due to the hiring freeze that have 3 managers and 4 staff how does that add up.As i have said in earlier comments as far cut are concerned once A+E goes next will be peads then maternity then it will be just a shell there wont even be a need for th morgue you so flippantly mentioned.. as for tullamore it cant handle the patients it has MRI scheduled for Jan consultant will be at least march 2012 that is..................

madred006

toby08 wrote: »

just cant wait to drive to tullamore a 3 o clock in the morning with a sick child not funny !!!!

You seem to be missing the point ,if you drive to portlaoise at 3 in the morning and the services are not there are you not better to get the best treatment available in a fully operational hospital,I never said anything was funny ,but its time to wake up and get real if we cannot afford it close it ,we had a party in this country for 7-8 years where everything was taken for granted ,now its over time for the medicine bitter an all as it is to take .

toby08

madred006 wrote: »

You seem to be missing the point ,if you drive to portlaoise at 3 in the morning and the services are not there are you not better to get the best treatment available in a fully operational hospital,I never said anything was funny ,but its time to wake up and get real if we cannot afford it close it ,we had a party in this country for 7-8 years where everything was taken for granted ,now its over time for the medicine bitter an all as it is to take .

I am real if something is not working fix it. Dont miss the fact that most of the overspends are down to bad management decisions.very few as with most of the bloated civil service would survive in the public sector. As to services in portlaoise what are they lacking. By reducing services could put lives in jepordy.the nearest would be outside my time limit will some give me a house ìn tullamore.we are talking about real people here .keep our hospital open.the extra cost to build a secure wing in tullamore for prisoners + transport and security would keep portlaoise going for a few more years

madred006

msthe80s wrote: »

I agree with you.
Most attendees at a&e have had neither an accident nor an emergency.
All GP practices should be better equiped to deal with small surgical emergencies ( suturing,dressings etc....), hospitals are merely poorly organised businesses at present in Ireland.
As it is, all orthopaedic (and most ENT)patients are refered to Tullamore anyway- plus major general surgeries refered to Dublin hospitals.
We would have a more efficent health service if people used it properly!!!!!

Thanks,I am saddened to see the closure of certain services in portlaoise but it cannot continue 70-80%percent of people use A/E because they cant afford a DR and when they get billed for the service refuse to pay it .A family member was treated in portlaoise for 2 years for a hernia 6 months ago the operated to remove same only to discover that it wasnt a hernia and would warrent specialist treatment in Dublin which we are still waiting on .Five weeks ago had misfortune of having child in A/E after car accident and witnessed 5 members of certain minority community having wheelchair races on the corridoor ,with security staff seemingly blind to it .And you mention about a secure unit ,well there is a very secure unit across the road with 5-8 nurses on duty at all times to give out panadol and nicorette patches with DRS on duty every day but still they send prisoners across to A/E minor problems .

DJCR

toby08 wrote: »

I seem to have heard on local radio today about a guarantee for 6 months.while anything is welcome I personally think this is just as bad if true ....has any body heard this or the reasoning behind it (6 months ) ???????????

It would seem that 6 months is up. Another public meeting is being planned for early next week. Check it out here.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Portlaoise-Hospital/248600348487820

Evolution Enter

This just went up on FB on Sean Fleming's page - looks like it's more than A&E up for the chop

Confirmation by the HSE that they have plans in place to downgrade Portlaoise Hospital must immediately be stopped and reversed.

The Health Service Executive has confirmed in writing to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee their plans for the reorganisation of Emergency Departments in hospitals throughout the country. As a Member of the Public Accounts Committee I was shocked to receive this information last week and it flies in the face of everything that has been said about protecting the future of Portlaoise Hospital.

The HSE has confirmed that they have plans in development for the Emergency Department in Portlaoise to be downgraded to a Medical Assessment Unit. This means that no acute medical patients will be dealt with in Portlaoise’s Emergency Department in future. The HSE say that the Medical Assessment Unit is appropriate to a Model 2 (local hospital) and only low risk medical patients will be referred to the Emergency Department there.

In the Report of the National Acute Medical Programme a Model 2 hospital will only have a daytime Medical Assessment Unit. Night-time cover for the Emergency Department will be eliminated.

A Model 2 hospital, also under the same plan, will have no Intensive Care Unit. A lot of the surgery that is currently carried out in Portlaoise Hospital will also have to stop if there is no Intensive Care Unit. This also raises serious questions for the Maternity Unit in Portlaoise.

This information was produced by the HSE in July but only presented to the Members of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee last week. There will be 9 major Emergency Departments in the country based in the cities. The next highest grade of Emergency Department will be in 15 other hospitals throughout the country all of which, with the exception of Drogheda, have less patients attending than attend Portlaoise. These hospitals will include Mullingar, Tullamore, Naas and Kilkenny.

The next category of Emergency Department will be located in 8 other hospitals throughout the country and the majority of these have less than 20,000 people attending their Emergency Department. Portlaoise has over 41,000 people attending on an annual basis and no other hospital with such a high attendance is being relegated to this level of Medical Assessment Unit. Portlaoise is now in a list of Emergency Departments with Roscommon, Nenagh, Ennis, Navan, Loughlinstown, Dunlaoighre, and St. Johns Limerick. Everybody knows there are major question marks in relation to the future of these hospitals.

I want to express my outrage and anger in relation to the fact that this information has been well known in the Department of Health and the HSE in recent months and this information has been publicly withheld from all the Oireachtas members in the county and the public at large.

We have now seen the truth for the first time from the HSE in their letter to the Public Accounts Committee. This information contrasts sharply with the nice sounding vague promises and guarantees that we have been given in recent months.

The stark truth is that Portlaoise is to be relegated to a Model 2 hospital with only a day time Medical Assessment Unit and no Intensive Care Unit.

I will raise this matter in the Dáil as it is absolutely clear that Portlaoise alone has been singled out in the entire country for downgrading. Outside the major cities and the hospital in Drogheda, Portlaoise is the busiest Emergency Department unit is the country. It ranks number 11 for the number of people attending out of the 34 Emergency Departments in the entire country.

Portlaoise is on the same HSE list as Roscommon Hospital. We all know what happened the Emergency Department in Roscommon. It was unilaterally downgraded recently and the people were told that they could go to Galway.

I am shocked at this news for Portlaoise. However, at least we know have the truth of what is planned. I am calling on the Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee which was formed recently to immediately call an emergency meeting to discuss the actual true facts in relation to Portlaoise that have now come to light so that every effort can be made to reverse this decision.