Concern over possible amalgamation of portiuncula and roscommon hospitals

Local TD Denis Naughten has described plans to amalgamate Roscommon and Portiuncula Hospitals into a single hospital as “worrying”.

An internal management document, seen by Deputy Naughten, developed within the Saolta University Health Care Group (GUH, Portiuncula, Roscommon, Mayo, and Sligo and Letterkenny Hospitals) outlines a plan to amalgamate Roscommon and Portiuncula Hospitals together, along with the renaming of the hospitals.

Commenting on the document, Denis Naughten said: “While it may seem from the outside that this proposal is just a way to streamline the co-operation between both hospitals, it must be remembered that the previous amalgamations have led to a planned downgrading of services at Portiuncula and Roscommon Hospitals.

“Firstly, we were told that the establishment of the Galway/Roscommon University Hospital group would protect A&E services at both Roscommon and Portiuncula Hospitals. Instead Roscommon A&E has been closed and Portiuncula A&E is not presently capable of dealing with many time critical emergencies, such as strokes.

“Then we were told that the new West-NorthWest Hospital Group (now Saolta University Health Care Group) would strengthen the long term viability of our hospitals, but one of the first actions taken was to draw up a plan to downgrade the maternity service at Portiuncula Hospital.

“Now we have a secret plan to amalgamate both hospitals, which I believe is worrying.”

He added: “It is now time for the Department of Health and hospital group management to outline exactly what are its plans for both Portiuncula and Roscommon Hospitals, instead of developing plans behind closed doors.

“We were told that it was important that consultants, nursing and other medical staff from Roscommon and Portiuncula were directly linked into University Hospital Galway in order to maintain skills.

'Is it now the case that posts currently vacant, such as the geriatrician post in Portiuncula, will not now happen because there is a geriatrician at Roscommon Hospital? Will this mean Roscommon be left without new appointments if there is already a similar post in Portiuncula?

“My fear is that the service to patients will fall between two stools and that HIQA will then come in and say that neither the service in Roscommon nor Portiuncula is safe, which will lead to the closure of services at one or both hospitals.

“This is what we have seen to date with the amalgamation of hospitals into groups and in light of the fact that this is yet another ‘behind closed doors plan’, my fear is that this will just be more of the same,” concluded Denis Naughten.