Tag Archives: health minister

St Columcille’s Hospital, Loughlinstown – Services to close?

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Loughlinstown Hospital facing closure of services

Loughlinstown Hospital facing closure of services

There have been calls on Health Minister James Reilly to clarify the Government’s position on the future of services at St Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown.
It had been suggested that the 24-hour Accident and Emergency unit would close and the hospital would only operate a daytime minor injury service.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) warned that any attempt to transfer A&E services from Loughlinstown Hospital would have serious consequences for the quality of patient care.
It was pointed out that those who currently live in the catchment area of St Columcille’s would have to travel to the nearest A&E department at St Vincent’s Hospital.
In February, the HSE told the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) in a report that it planned to remove 24-hour emergency services from St Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown later this year.
 The Government and the HSE both denied claims made in recent media reports about the future of the A&E department at St Columcille’s.
In an adjournment debate in the Dail on Thursday (June 16) Deputy Brian Hayes (FG), speaking on behalf of Minister Reilly, said: “There is no plan to cease any of the current services at St Columcille’s Hospital.
“However, the configuration of services is constantly reviewed and from time to time rearranged to improve access and quality of service and minimise risk to patients.”
In a statement the HSE added: “There is no date set with regard to the cessation of any current services at St Columcille’s Hospital.”
Phillip McAnely is the representative for the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) at Loughlinstown Hospital.
He did not believe that St Vincent’s Hospital would have the capacity to deal with the transfer of patients from St Colmcille’s Hospital if the A&E department in Loughlinstown closed.
“I want the Minister for Health and the HSE to review the decision to close the Accident and Emergency department at the hospital,” he said.
“Closing a busy A&E department and winding down services to transfer them to another A&E department – where over 60 people were waiting in its A&E department this week and regularly has 40 people waiting – just doesn’t make any sense. This does nothing to help health service reform.
“The loser in this has to be the patient,” he added. “Anyone who shows up at an emergency department needs emergency attention. Already the wait time for patients at St Vincent’s is unacceptable.”
Stephen McMahon, the CEO of the Irish Patients’ Association, criticised the HSE’s handling of the issue and said that it should consult with patients and local communities around the country on the downgrading of services at smaller hospitals.
“You can’t just transfer large volumes of patients from one hospital to another without making sure that they have the resources,” he said.
Cllr Denis O’Callaghan (Lab) tabled an emergency motion on the issue at the Dublin Mid Leinster HSE health forum meeting last week. His motion opposed any proposal to close the A&E at St Columcille’s.
In response to the motion, a HSE official said in a written reply that at this juncture no final decision had been taken with regard to the future of Emergency Department Services at St Columcille’s Hospital.
Meanwhile, Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit warned that he would mobilise local support to campaign against any move to close the A&E department at St Columcille’s.
“Four years ago the people of Dun Laoghaire and surrounding areas marched and petitioned to keep St Michael’s Hospital open,” he said. “This pressure worked and we kept our hospital in Dun Laoghaire. We are going to have to do the same again to ensure that we keep the current services in Loughlinstown.”
There was nobody available at the Department of Health to comment

Our Health System could bankrupt our Country

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Our Health System

Our Health System

Health Minister James Reilly has warned that unless reforms are made our healthcare system alone could bankrupt the country.

“Even if we were not facing the dire financial situation this country does face, if we had no plan to reform our health service, the country would be bankrupted by the health system alone,” Dr Reilly told a major health conference in Dublin today.

He said the current level of spending on health services was unsustainable so changes must be made.

The Minister said his promised special delivery unit to tackle hospital waiting lists, which was currently being established, would have representation from the HSE and also from Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Its core focus would be the elimination of waiting lists, the Minister said. A rigorous performance measurement process would be put in place, waiting list times would be monitored on a daily basis, and as Minister he would directly oversee the results.

He reiterated his pledge to achieve a significant reduction in waiting lists within three years .

Dr Reilly said under the Government’s reform plans, hospitals would be paid per patient seen rather than by block grant as was now the case. There would be more transparency and it will be known which hospitals were doing what and which doctors were doing what.

He said ‘money follows the patient’ would be an important step in achieving universal health insurance. Controls would be put in place to ensure the new system did not encourage ‘cherry-picking’  by hospitals.

The Minister said under the new system, everyone would have insurance from their choice of insurer. This insurance would guarantee every citizen equal access to a comprehensive range of hospital and mental health services.

Dr Reilly, who was addressing the National Healthcare Conference 2011, said the purpose of UHI was to achieve equity of access to healthcare for all.

The Minister said the Government had made a commitment to introduce free GP care for the whole population on a phased basis in its first term of office.

He said the Government must ensure there are enough GPs in place to respond to the likely increased demand for services under free GP care for all.

Dr Reilly said he wanted to see greater progress on the roll-out of new primary care teams and new primary care centres. He said a new GP contract would lead to more care shifting from hospitals to the community.

Some work currently done by GPs would move to other primary care staff while GPs would take on new work. Under a new contract, GPs would work in an integrated way with primary care teams.

Dr Reilly said the journey of reform would be towards a health service that all have access to and of which those who work in it were proud.

He said he was putting in place a plan to deal with the A&E problem, and to deal with the winter surges in activity.

The Minister said more diagnostic facilities would be put in place in the community and there would be more chronic illness care taking place in the community. This would take pressure off hospitals.

He said he had asked the NTPF to do a study on the price of beds in nursing homes that would have a full scale of facilities such as physiotherapy, so that patients could be moved out of the hospital setting and nearer to home.

This should free up a considerable number of hospital beds, he said.

The Minister said  the location for the new national children’s hospital, which was currently being reviewed, was a ‘big decision for the country’. He said it had to be ensured that the money was there to complete the the project – all the issues were being reviewed, after which he would make an announcement on the hospital. (Irish Health.com)

Welcome to our new Health Minister – Dr James Reilly

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Dr James Reilly

Dr James Reilly

As was widely expected, Fine Gael’s Dr James Reilly has been appointed Minister for Health in the new coalition Government (Irishhealth.com)

Dr Reilly was first elected to the Dail in 2007 and was appointed Fine Gael health spokesman shortly afterwards. He was appointed the party’s Deputy Leader last July.

He faces a challenging task in pushing through the major health reforms promised by the new Government, most importantly the introduction of a new universal health insurance (UHI) system which aims to end  two-tier care and give everyone equal access to GP and hospital treatment based solely on medical need.

The Government has promised free GP care will be introduced within its five-year term of office, following which the UHI system will come in, allowing for universal hospital care.

Dr Reilly also faces the more immediate task of dealing with waiting lists, bed capacity and emergency department overcrowding. The new Government has promised to set up a special delivery unit aimed at eliminating long patient waiting times.

The new Minister comes from a medical family going back three generations. His father, Dr Noel Reilly, was Secretary General of the Irish Medical Association. There are seven doctors in his family.

A GP in north Dublin for many years and a fourth generation native of Lusk, James Reilly is married with five children.

Prior to entering national politics, he had a major involvement in medical politics, having served as President of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and Chairman of the IMO’s GP Committee.

He led the IMO negotiating team which negotiated a lucrative deal for GPs following the extension of the medical card scheme to all over 70s regardless of income in 2001.

Dr Reilly has, however said that the will not shirk from taking on vested interests in implementing reforms. He has already promised to negotiate new contracts for GPs and consultants and cut their earnings.

St Lukes Next?

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The next Victim of the Health Bill 2010 ?

The next Victim of the Health Bill 2010 ?

Is St Lukes next on the chopping board for Mary Harney? It seems this is where she has her eye.

It has been reported that the cancer facility will be kept on as a terminally ill care centre as opposed to being “sold off”. Operations will be split between St James’ and Beamont Hospitals, with a portion of staff transferring to St James’ and Beaumont at the latter end of this year. The remainder of staff will be transferred by 2014.

Health Minister Mary Harney was bringing the Health Bill 2010 to the Oireachtas Committe on Health and Children, which allows for the detachment of the hospital boards and the transfer of assets. The plans for closure will continue with the reorganisation of cancer services in eight hospitals.

Radiotherapy will be transferred to Beaumont and St James’.

“The ethos of St Lukes is to keep it as a hospital and not have it sold”, said Harney. “Land near the city centre for public health use is hard to find and there is a growing demand for health services.”

Although this has been justified by the Health Minister, it has not been met with as much support as first imagined. It has caused immeasurable controversy and hurt to those who have survived cancer and who have been at the mercy of the fantastic staff at St Lukes.

Chairperson of “Save St Luke’s Hospital” campaign and cancer survivor Joe Guilfoyle says ” St Lukes is one of the few success stories of our public health system”.

Guilfoyle goes on to add “Its is a hospital that patients like me are very happy to travel to. It is unacceptable that the minister is attempting to close it”.

I myself look forward to hearing more on what could potentially be damaging news to those who St Lukes have been paramount to their recovery.

Has the Health Minister gone too far this time or is this all part of a grand scheme of events to help the Irish public health system?

We’ll see.