WEXFORD A*E ON CLOSURE LIST – REPORT
Reaction has been swift after a newspaper said today that Wexford General Hospital is one of nine hospitals around the country that will no longer treat emergency patients.
According to today’s Sunday Business Post, a report from the Trauma Steering Group will recommend reducing the number of A*E units around the country.
Instead they’ll be converted into minor injuries units to concentrate on selected medical care and planned elective surgery.
It’s part of a plan to reduce the number of hospitals with emergency trauma care departments and centralise major trauma services, a move suopported by the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine, which represents A*E doctors.
But Sinn Fein County Councillor Johnny Mythen says this can only have a negative impact on survival rates for those injured in car crashes or who sustain significant traumas.
He’s calling for an immediate statement from the Minister of Health about the status of Wexford’s A*E.
And new Fianna Fail Councillor and former Senator, Lisa McDonald, says it makes no sense to send all trauma patients in the South East to Waterford University Hospital’s creaking A*E.
