Health Minister Simon Harris has asked the HSE to step back from any further work on the controversial downgrade plan for the hospital in Portlaoise, with the Department of Health now to directly engage with local community.
Midlands 103 aired an interview by Susan Mitchell of the Sunday Business Post, with Minister for Health Simon Harris, on December 21 last.
In the interview, Minister Harris accepted that local stakeholders in Midland Regional Hospital Portlaosie (MRHP) and the community did not “seem to accept that changes proposed in Dr. O’Reilly’s leaked plan are the best for the area”.
Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee has been very active in highlighting the flaws in O’Reilly’s plan in relation to how it was compiled and the recommendations therein.
In seeing the gap between O’Reilly’s plan and the views of local stakeholders, Minister Harris withdrew power from the HSE to continue to work with the current plan for the hospital, the committee claims
In the interview he states: “(What) I’ve asked is rather than the HSE undertaking further work on this plan, that my Department itself, my officials, would directly engage with the clinical community in the Midlands, would bring the clinical community together, would ask them to put forward their ideas…
“I genuinely feel and I think if any of you talk to people working in the Portlaoise Hospital or indeed providing GP services in Portlaoise, that they have ideas about how to make the services safer.
Input
“They don’t feel they ever got an opportunity to input. So my department and I have now decided we are going to directly engage with them”.
Action Committee Secretary, John Hanniffy responded to this turn of events.
”This is a very important outcome of our work. In taking the fate of MRHP out of the hands of the HSE, we feel that Minister Harris has heard and gives some credit to our claims that the process was not above board.
It is as if he has lost some confidence in their mandate, something we asserted early on in this campaign,” Mr Hanniffy said.
Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee said it was very pleased to hear the Minister “setting Susan Mitchell straight on the actual definition of consultation”.
Minister Harris highlighted: “I think there’s a difference between consulting on a fait accompli, there’s a difference between saying – here is the plan tell us what you think rather than actually [asking] people who are responsible for the delivery of services in Portlaoise. And it is very unusual”.
The committee has previously rejected Dr O’Reilly’s claims that there was ‘still time’ for consultation.
PRO, Eimear Holland said: “After-the-fact consultation is merely a tick-box rhetorical attempt to claim that all voices were involved and taken on board. Allowing people to disagree with a plan which they know is already set in stone is not consultation.
“It is not formative. It is not meaningful. Consultation should genuinely seek to give people a voice in order to inform and shape a plan, which will genuinely work for all concerned! Anything less isn’t good enough!” she said.
The action committee said it respects and appreciates the Minister’s intention to correct the process.
Genuine
“We hope that it will be genuine and meaningful, thus resulting in a plan for Portlaoise Hospital which provides equal access to consistent and equitable health care,” they state.
“We also welcome Minister Charlie Flanagan’s statement, which communicated that Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee would be included in this process,” a statement from the committee said.
Another point which the Action Committee welcomed and which aligned with their own contention, was problems with re-configuration.
Minister Harris noted: “We don’t have a good record in relation to reconfiguration in this country.
“In fact we’re dealing with the impact with not doing it right in many parts of the country including in the Mid-West in relation to the fact that a number of hospitals were closed…additional supports were not put into other hospitals”.
The Action Committee says it has consistently attempted to highlight the dangers of re-configuration, particularly where EDs are downgraded and closed.
Evidence
“There is evidence of this resulting in loss of life. Reports of people dying waiting on trolleys, waiting for ambulances and in ambulances has been attributed to the closure or EDs in the UK in recent weeks,” the committee’s statement oulines.
“We genuinely hope that the Minister is making this connection and that meaningful consultation will highlight that the closure of MRHP’s ED is neither a logical nor economically sound decision.
“We look forward to working with Minister Harris and his team in producing a plan, which is fit for purpose for the people of Laois and surrounding areas,” the committee concludes.
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