Portlaoise hospital is being allowed to ‘wither’ warns Laois doctor

Portlaoise hospital is being allowed to wither away despite promises made by the Minister for Health Simon Harris, according to a Laois GP.

Speaking at the Still Waiting Ireland public meeting in Portlaoise, Dr Gerry White said commitments have not been kept.

He said the hospital remains in a state of stagnation. He said there had been no consultation about its future, no meetings with the HSE, and no appointment by the Minister Simon Harris of a promised consultation facilitator almost a year on from his promise to do so.

“We've had no movement forward and no plan, no recruitment and no new investment. Basically Portlaoise (hospital) has been left there like fruit on a tree to wither. This is a huge huge shame,” said Dr White.

While he did not expect the hospital to close, he had fears for the future. He said the HSE report proposing downgrade “has not gone away.”

“Stagnation helps nobody. One would think that no news is good news, let's keep going the way we are. That is not good news for anybody. It has come to a position of poor morale. People have fears for the future. It has a major impact on recruitment,” he said.

He said staff will look at other jobs because of the doubt over the hospital.

He said a promised fourth consultant paediatrician has not materialised.

He said the backdrop to the lack of commitment was a growth in demand for services and a growing local population.

He commended the staff in the hospital, particularly the two temporary A&E consultants. He said the paediatric and maternity units were 'terrific'. He also praised the surgical and medical service and said it would be 'madness' to allow ICU to close.

“All we are asking for is a fair share of the pie,” he said.

He said there were would be a knock on impact for community healthcare if downgrade happens. Recruiting staff to the out-of-hours MiDoc GP service is already challenging. He said young GPs will not take jobs if there is no hospital support.

“Who is going to take a job if you are going to be run into the ground (as a result of downgrade),” he said.

He called again for clarity on the hospital's future.

“We need a definite plan. We need recruitment of staff. We need investment to cope with the high volume, low dependency multi-disciplinary hospital that we have. We ar e not looking to do cardiac or brain surgery we just want to provide multi-discplinary services to people,” he said.

He said his biggest fear was that the downgrade plan would be dusted off after the General Election.

“This plan has to be shredded. The HSE needs to be made aware we are not shrinking violets. We are not just going to go away quietly and take this. We are prepared to take a stand and defend the services that we have,” he said.