“Ludicrous” is how the chairperson of the HSE West’s regional health forum has described the decision to expand the role of general manager of Galway University Hospital’s to include responsibility for Portiuncula and Roscommon hospitals.
Cllr Padraig Conneely says this controversial move, which is vehemently opposed by Ballinasloe people who fear their hospital will be downgraded in the process, will mean that UHG will not have a dedicated manager.
“It is one of the biggest hospitals outside Dublin, the largest acute hospital in the west. It is a designated centre of excellence and a designated cancer centre which treats people from Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, Clare and Galway.
“Now for the first time ever it will not have a dedicated manager. The recent HealthStat report [HSE league table which measures hospitals’ performances against other hospitals with a view to learning from the high scorers] gave UHG a zero rating and said it was in urgent need of attention. How can that be done now with no dedicated general manager for the first time ever? The new general manager will have to make decisions for four hospitals - UHG, Merlin Park, Ballinasloe and Roscommon - and balance the books. There are going to be losers somewhere along the line. This is a backward step.”
The former mayor says he learned at this week’s regional health forum committee meeting in Limerick that interviews for the position of general manager were conducted last Thursday.
“John Hennessy, the HSE’s regional director of operations, would not say how many people applied but said it should take a number of weeks before the appointment is made. He confirmed the person appointed will have responsibility for Galway University Hospitals [Merlin Park and UHG] Portiuncula and Roscommon. That means they will be torn in three ways. This information was given to me on a day (Tuesday ) when there were 29 people on trolleys at UHG. So there is something seriously wrong with the lack of management structure in the hospital. [The decision to extend the manager’s role] is part of a reconfiguration of operations, services and management in the HSE structure, according to the HSE.
“You can have all the reconfiguration you want but there is no reconfiguration for the 29 people on trolleys, they are left out of the loop. Last week an 88-year-old man from Mayo came to Galway for a one to two hour day procedure to be carried out on Wednesday. He was asked to come in on Monday evening. He came in and got a bed and was to have tests on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning he was fasting and was prepared for theatre at 8am - he was to go down between 9am and 10am. At 5pm he still hadn’t gone down and was weak with starvation. At 6pm he was told the procedure was cancelled. It could not be done the following day and was done on the Friday. The HSE is making great play out of more day procedures being done to free up beds but here you have someone occupying a bed for a week for a two hour procedure. I know of this case because I am a friend of the family. But how many more cases are there like this?”
