Consultant slams "shambolic" health service planning

Consultant physician at Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, John Barton said this week the planning for the health service for the area was 'shambolic'. Mr Barton said that while he believes Portiuncula Hospital has a bright future and all of the problems there can be solved he was worried that the people of Roscommon would no longer have an adequate service. "The worry I have for Roscommon is that I just think the service that the people require cannot be provided by ambulance staff," he said. "It is quite a distance from UCHG and from Portiuncula and I think the whole planning for the health service in that area has been shambolic. Roscommon is getting to the point where they don't have enough doctors but they haven't left an alternative in place that can guarantee the people proper healthcare." Mr Barton added that there were better models of providing access to acute care if the health service planned to close a hospital. "In Belgium some hospitals wouldn't be providing 24/7 acute services but they are duty-bound to provide a doctor that will go out to a critically ill patient in the ambulance. They have doctors who go out to provide emergency care instead of relying on paramedics. That's not to say that paramedics don't provide great care, but it's not the same as a doctor with experience," he said. "We tend to look at Britain when perhaps we should be looking at the continent. That's why I recommended the Dutch model to the Fine Gael party. We know small hospitals can't operate around the clock but there has to be acute services to manage the patient and then move them on," he added.