Failure by two top consultants from Waterford Regional Hospital to attend, as arranged, Monday night’s meeting of the City Council to discuss concerns over the hospital’s resources enraged the Council members who concluded that the pair had been muzzled by the HSE.
Having outlined to a Council workshop, in committee, some inadequacies in the hospital’s system to cater for certain emergencies, Dr Joe O’Beirne, Chairman of the WRH Department of Orthopaedics’ Medical Board and Dr Rob Landers, Clinical Director at the hospital, had agreed to make a presentation to Monday’s open monthly meeting.
But just prior to the meeting Mayor Mary Roche received a telephone message from them notifying her that they had been instructed by the HSE not to attend.
A debate proceeded anyway, centered on fears that a pledge from Health Minister Mary Harney that the hospital was to become a centre of excellence for the region, would not materialise unless effective pressures were brought to bear to make it happen.
A motion was passed demanding of the HSE that, in the interests of patient safety, it ensured that the ‘reconfiguration process’ for the South East was advanced and resourced in a rational way. The motion particularly highlighted the need to upgrade the critical care services at WRH to allow it fulfil its role as the regional centre of excellence. And it urged the HSE to commit the necessary capital investment “in the same way as has been, and is being done in other regions throughout the State”.
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