Donegal patients and children should not always require travel for acute services

The HSE have said that there are no plans to develop a Paediatric Center of Excellence for Children living in the North West.

The response came at the monthly meeting of the Regional Health Forum West in Galway after it was pointed out by Cllr Gerry McMonagle that all other Centres of Excellence are located below the Galway/Dublin line.

In a response from Tony Canavan, Regional Executive Officer, of HSE West and North West, he was told that Galway is the regional paediatric unit for the West and Northwest region. 

Mr Canavan said: “A regional network is in place with close links between Galway and the local paediatric units in Letterkenny, Sligo and Mayo. 

“Close links are also in place between all sites and CHI (Children’s Health Ireland) where specialist care is delivered as well as shared care services.”

Cllr McMonagle said, “that’s the reality” for children in the north west.

He said it was like children with diabetes who have to go to Sligo and for children with any other services needing to go to Galway.

“We have a hospital in Letterkenny which is big enough and in the county. I don’t see why Donegal patients in particular and children have to keep travelling."

He added that he did not know whether “Galway is an appropriate location for people from Donegal, that’s all I am saying”.

“We need to get some of these acute services and centres of excellence based in our county. We have a massive population, a large geographical county, second biggest in the country, we shouldn’t have to keep travelling.

“We need to be looking at LUH (Letterkenny University Hospital) and we need to move from Model three (a ranking for hospitals around the country) because it is not able to provide the service for the Donegal patients and they should not always have to travel”.  

Meabwhile, Mr Canavan explained that the national Model of Care for Paediatric healthcare services provides a framework for the delivery of health services to children in Ireland.

“The Model of Care sets out a vision for the delivery of services where all children should be able to access safe, high quality services in an appropriate location, within an appropriate time frame, irrespective of their geographical location or social background. 

“This requires the development of an integrated network for paediatric services nationally between the new children’s hospital, regional and local paediatric units. Detail is provided within the model of care on requirements for care provision at local and regional paediatric units, including workforce and conditions.”

Cllr McMonagle said the new national children's hospital would be most welcome and have excellent services "when" it opened, but that did not take away from Donegal people's requirements of needing centres of excellence and greater access to acute services within the county and especially children.