A SENIOR consultant in emergency medicine has expressed concern that failure to open the new €4.7 million emergency department at the Mercy University Hospital on a full-time basis will put an unmanageable strain on the already overstretched emergency department at Cork University Hospital, writes Barry Roche.
Dr Chris Luke, who works in both CUH and MUH, warned that opening the new emergency department on a 12-hour basis, as proposed by MUH management because of a €1.5 million shortfall in funding from the HSE, will have serious consequences for emergency departments at both MUH and CUH.
"I am extremely concerned that if the new Mercy University emergency department was to only open on a part-time basis, the impact of diverting ambulances to the already overstretched emergency department at Cork University Hospital would be exceptionally dangerous and difficult to deal with at CUH," he said.
"It's my belief that the MUH and CUH emergency departments both need the other to operate as efficiently as possible because both are operating beyond capacity - moreover there must be some anxiety about the lack of surge capacity in these routinely overcrowded emergency departments," he said.
It is estimated that about 40 per cent of attendances at the MUH AE department occur between 8pm and 8am, resulting in about 10,000 attendances being diverted to the CUH if the new MUH emergency department opens on a part-time basis from 8am to 8pm.
Last week, HSE Southern Hospitals Group Hospital Network manager, Gerry O'Dwyer, told the HSE Regional Health Forum that discussions were ongoing with MUH management and "the projected opening date for the new unit is in late July 2008 and the aspiration is that the unit will open on a 24/7 basis at that stage".
However, two GPs working on Cork's northside told 150 people at a public meeting, organised by a group called Campaign for a Real Public Health Service, last week that failure to open the new AE department at MUH on a full-time basis would lead to a downgrading of other services at the hospital.
Dr Cyril Lane, who has a practice on Military Hill, warned that the emergency department at the MUH is the gateway for many admissions to the hospital and closing it for 12 hours a day means the MUH would become a part-time hospital and "the closure of the Mercy itself is then inevitable within years".
Dr John Sheehan, who has a practice in Blackpool, said all acute admissions of both medical and surgical patients to the Mercy are through the AE department. He questioned whether the lack of HSE funding for the MUH was an attempt to reduce services there and centralise services at CUH.
Cllr Mick Barry of the Socialist Party told the meeting that the people of Cork had already "suffered the trauma" of a closure of a local hospital when the North Infirmary was closed and both Minister for Health and the HSE should realise people will not allow the same to happen with the Mercy.
