Change of plan for Omagh hospital?
Major budget cuts could mean plans for the local enhanced hospital in Omagh will have to adapt. Emma Blee writes.
Progress on the new local hospital complex in Omagh has been slow but with reduced funding for the project, the business case may now have to change.
Since 2001 there has been a long-running campaign to save acute services at the Tyrone County Hospital. In 2009 the services were removed and seriously ill patients now have to be taken to hospitals in Enniskillen or Derry.
There is still a cardiac unit, an x-ray, ultra- sound and CAT scanning department, theatres for day surgery and a laboratory.
In 2009, the Health Minister promised that a local enhanced hospital would be built in Omagh at a cost of £190 million and that this would be ready for business in 2013. He said that the new hospital would provide local enhanced services, a centre for mental health and a new health care centre.
However, in May he stated that while he was still “fully committed” to the local enhanced hospital, that level of money is no longer available.
West Tyrone MLA Kieran Deeny says progress for the hospital business case now seems to “be at a standstill”. He claims that while delays are largely due to the financial climate, Michael McGimpsey has put “Tyrone firmly at the bottom” of the priority list when it comes to health care provision but one of the first “to be targeted when savings are to be made within the health budget”.
Deeny says it is time to face reality that the promise of £190 million “is never going to happen”. He believes that the way forward is to follow a model for the Downe local enhanced hospital in Downpatrick.
The GP comments: “We don’t need £190 million for the hospital that will serve the health requirements of our patients. Less than a third of this figure would meet the needs of our patients, would greatly please the health professionals who continue to provide for our patients, and at the same time, save the Minister and his health department approximately £130 million.”
Deeny argues that the Downe model should be the template for small rural hospitals. It contains acute medical beds, a consultant-led and doctor-run A&E department, where services are available until 12 midnight and out-of-hours GPs then take over until 8pm the next morning. There is also a midwifery-led unit for low-risk pregnancies and junior doctors rotate with the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald.
Asked which health services he would like to see in Omagh, MP Pat Doherty listed: “Urgent care and treatment centre incorporating a clinical decision unit, ambulance base, ENT inpatient unit, day surgery unit, renal services, imaging services, community midwifery unit, palliative care, women’s health unit, dedicated children’s centre, acute adult mental health and psychiatric unit, out- patient services and rehabilitation.”
Meanwhile, his neighbour Michelle Gildernew said she would like to see a range of maternity services available in Fermanagh and South Tyrone. She would also like to see a health service shared by those living in both the north and south of Ireland.
The hospital in Downpatrick cost £64 million to build but Deeny thinks that further savings could be made in Omagh. “We, as members of Stormont’s Health Committee, during our meeting earlier this year in Downpatrick, were told by DHSSPS chief financial director on building projects that construction costs are now 25 per cent less and so such a hospital could be built in Omagh now, or in the near future, for less than £50 million.”
He says this would put the Omagh hospital issue finally to bed, and by accepting this, the department would actually be saving £130 million.
Deeny is calling for further pressure on the Health Minister “to keep his promise to the people of Omagh and Tyrone and therefore commit and give a date to build a hospital in Omagh just like the new Downe hospital in Downpatrick”.
In response, the Health Minister said the Omagh hospital project is one of his “key priorities”. However, he said the department is facing “huge financial pressures in relation to both capital and revenue budgets.” McGimpsey added that a final decision on the project cannot be made until he has clarity on affordability.
