Batt O'Keeffe
Ceist:120 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Health when a second consultant in accident and emergency medicine will be appointed. [11747/96]
Written Answers. - Consultant Appointment.
Limerick East): During 1995 the Southern Health Board decided that a working party, comprising representatives of each of the city hospitals, general practitioners and the ambulance service, should be established to review the organisation and management of the accident and emergency services in Cork.
The group met on a number of occasions under the chairmanship of Mr. Stephen Cusack, A and E consultand at the Cork University Hospital. I understand that the report has recently been completed and is under consideration by the Southern Health Board. On receipt of the report within my Department, the recommendations will be examined in detail and the question of funding will be considered at that stage.
On the question of the appointment of an additional A and E consultant to Cork, the Deputy will be aware that the recent Comhairle na nOspideal report on consultant manpower needs for Cork recommended the establishment of a pan-hospital structure. This structure is designed to act as a vehicle for achieving consensus between the agencies in Cork with regard to priority consultant posts and the location of those posts within the Cork hospital system.
I would expect that the question of the appointment of an additional A and E consultant post for Cork would be subject, in the first instance, to discussion through the consultation process set up under that structure, in association with the management of the agencies concerned.
I understand that the pan-hospital structure's deliberations on the immediate priorities for Cork are almost complete and I anticipate detailed proposals in relation to agreed priority posts in the near future.
Any decisions on the appointment of an additional A and E consultant post in Cork must, therefore, await an examination within my Department of both the report of the A and E working group and that of the pan-hospital structure.