No plan for dialysis unit in West Cork, despite councillor’s plea

The South/South West Hospital Group has said there are no plans to open a dialysis unit at Bantry General Hospital following calls from a local councillor for dialysis treatment to be made available in West Cork.

Independent councillor for the West Cork electoral area, Danny Collins, brought a motion to a recent meeting of the HSE Health Forum South asking the HSE to consider opening a dialysis unit at Bantry General.

“Why I brought this motion in here today is because I have met a number of people and spoke about having a dialysis unit in Bantry, especially one gentleman who I spoke to last night and who left his home at 10am yesterday morning to be in CUH at 1pm,” Mr Collins said. “I rang his mobile at 6.57pm yesterday evening and he was just in the door. This gentleman is elderly and he has to do this four times a week and it’s wearing and tearing on him.

Badly Needed

“A dialysis unit is badly needed in the South West. We are in a very rural area and in terms of transport, I know we have Cancer Connect and it is a great service, but the journey itself is tiring for these people and I would hope that sometime we could look at having a dialysis unit at Bantry General Hospital.”

In response to Mr Collins, chief operations officer at the South/South West Hospital Group, Gerard O’Callaghan, said that dialysis is “quite a specialised service” that would not normally be located in a Model 2 hospital and that he does not see that changing because of the requirement for specialised staff.

In a written response, acting chief executive officer of the Cork University Hospital Group, Deirdre O’Keeffe, explained that the Acute Medicine Programme defined hospitals as Model 1 to 4 based on the type of activity that can be provided and that Bantry General Hospital is designated a Model 2R hospital.

“Model 2 hospitals can provide the majority of hospital activity including extended day surgery, selected acute medicine, local injuries, a large range of diagnostic services, including endoscopy, laboratory medicine, point-of-care testing, and radiology (CT, US and plain film X Ray), specialist rehabilitation medicine and palliative care,” she said.

“The model of care to deliver a renal dialysis service needs to be provided by a multidisciplinary team to support the patient/client, their family and or carer and this service is delivered by our sister hospital in the Cardiac Renal Tower at Cork University Hospital.”