The Department of Health is reiterating it has ‘no plans’ to reopen the emergency department at Ennis General Hospital.
Clare Councillors are set to once again call for the facility to be made into a model 3 hospital later today.
Elected representatives here have repeatedly voiced their concerns around health services in the region in the last number of months, prompting Clare County Council to write to both the Department of Health and the UL Hospitals Group about the matter.
Correspondence seen by Clare FM from Health Minister Stephen Donnelly’s private secretary says there are no plans to reopen Ennis ED on a 24/7 basis ‘at this time’, though notes that ‘improvements to address capacity issues’ will be made at University Hospital Limerick ‘in a timely manner’.
A separate letter issued to the Council by UL Hospitals Group CEO Colette Cowan says any upgrade of Ennis is not a matter for the Group or the HSE, but is down to Government policy.
The letter goes on to note an evaluation of the new ambulance pathway trial to Ennis’ Medical Assessment Unit is expected before any decision is made to extend it, though the Group has ‘every expectation’ of its success.
Clare Councillors are set to call on the HSE to again review its arrangements at a full meeting of the local authority’s elected members later this afternoon.
