Minister must publish report on Dublin Children’s Hospitals – Crowe

Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe has called on Health Minister
James Reilly to immediately publish the Meridian Productivity Report on
three children’s hospitals in Dublin.

The report, which has yet to be published, apparently shows that the
three Dublin Children’s Hospital have been under using their operating
theatres.

Speaking this afternoon Deputy Crowe said:

“We have a hospital system where healthcare quality, patient safety and
access is measured according to the latest scandal and not by
pro-active, independent monitoring and a quality control system and it
is patients, children in this instance, coming off the worst.

“To an outsider looking in the under use of operation theatres in the
three Dublin Children’s Hospitals would appear to be another systems
failure.  No doubt we will be told that there are legitimate reasons
behind these operations not going ahead.

“The system seems to on an over reliance on a paper trail rather than a
modern computerised system.  This needs to change and we should be
moving towards a system that includes round the clock, twenty-four hour
operating theatres in all three Dublin Children’s Hospitals particularly
to work through the backlog.

“The Minister needs to publish the report immediately.  It’s no use him
pro-actively seeking media opportunities on a report that only he has
seen.”