Speech by the Taoiseach, Mr. Enda Kenny T.D.
Official opening of the
Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) Bon Secours Hospital, Cork
Friday 20th November 2015
Good afternoon everyone.
I’m delighted to be here today to mark the official opening of the Medical Assessment Unit here at Bon Secours Hospital Cork.
Thank you Harry Canning for inviting me.
It’s a great day for you all with this wonderful project and I know it will make a significant difference to your own work and to the lives and wellbeing of all those you treat.
I believe it’s an auspicious development for Bill Maher who has recently taken over as CEO of the Bons Secours Health System.
Bill, Harry - the omens are good.
But the Bons never had to rely on omens, be it red skies spreading out into the West, or the magical movement of the swans on the Lee, or the heron that flies down here, low, in the evenings.
Since 1915, the Bons has been the heartbeat of the city.
Delivering babies; taking the strongest into your care when they were at their weakest, restoring them to the health that perhaps only then they began to value as the ultimate gift.
I know of several people who departed this life in the care of the Bons sisters and staff.
You gave them the particular gift of dignified passing. Something that sustains their relatives even to this day.
A man who spent a lot of time here said to me one time,
‘The Bons is great for the medicine and the machinery - they have it all - but it’s even better for the care.’
And that’s what you do. You care for people.
People feel minded, cherished while they are with you.
This new medical assessment unit will help you do that even better: quality care with quality technology.
In the past, we have seen private hospitals concentrate primarily on the delivery of elective care.
Recently however, we have seen more private hospitals moving towards the provision of acute care.
This Unit marks an important step forward in providing a greater level of acute healthcare for patients across the Munster region.
I know that the Medical Assessment Unit has actually been in operation for a little over a year.
The investment in the Unit, almost one million euro, has already started to pay dividends.
Over 4,000 patients have passed through its doors in the past twelve months. That is 4,000 patients that would otherwise have had to attend Accident & Emergency Departments in the public hospital system.
Part of the rationale behind the opening of this Unit was to make a genuine contribution towards alleviating pressure on other hospitals.
Even though it has only seven beds, since its opening, the figures prove that it has indeed been a success in reducing the burden on the other emergency departments across the region.
It has allowed patients prompt and timely access to expert consultant opinion, assessment, and if necessary, admission to hospital under specialist, consultant care. For seriously ill patients, it allows treatment to begin immediately on arrival.
Early assessment is supported by a full range of modern, class-leading diagnostic testing. It also provides General Practitioners and their patients with an additional channel of access to acute diagnostic and specialist opinion.
It is a testament to the dedication and professionalism of Professor Ronan O’Sullivan, Emergency Medicine Consultant at the hospital and Head of the Medical Assessment Unit, and the team he has brought around him, that such results are apparent after such a short period of time.
Well done. You are making the difference.
What you do, how you think about the delivery of care, has paid dividends.
It shows how systems can be made to work to deliver positive outcomes for patients.
Indeed, the MAU also offers us all opportunities to explore increased co-operation between private and public healthcare providers to meet the increasing demand for acute or emergency care.
I believe this Unit and others like it can facilitate greater and better collaboration between the two sectors when it comes to acute care.
As you know better than most, the private hospital sector makes a very real contribution to the provision of healthcare services in Ireland.
But you know too that the way in which you deliver those services is changing for example with the move to acute care.
Collectively, they provide over 1 in 6 acute beds to the Irish healthcare system. They employ approximately 8,000 people and that figure is likely to increase in the coming years.
That’s why the timing of today’s event is also important. It comes at a time of reform in the health system.
We want to do things better, using innovative care models and technology.
We want our health service to provide the safest possible, highest-quality care to our people.
And to do so in an environment that is changing.
If that is our ambition and intention then we must also be prepared to change the way in which those services are delivered.
Here you are adapting – changing - all the time.
And on this your centenary, you have big plans for the future.
I have been hugely impressed to learn of the proposals for a two-year, €64 million project to extend and develop the Bons.
The new state-of-the art Radiotherapy department, 70 new single patient rooms and two new operating theatres are just some of the improvements planned.
They will make a huge difference to health and healthcare in the Munster region and they will also provide those all-important jobs.
When the new facilities are fully operational in 2018, there will be 75 extra clinical jobs to add to the existing 1,100 jobs provided by the hospital overall.
Good news for the young men and women down the road in the medical faculty at UCC.
And people won’t have to wait until then to be hired, because construction alone will provide 200 jobs.
It’s not everyone who can go out to work in the morning and say today I will make a real difference to someone’s life.
But you can.
It is an opportunity and a privilege.
Today, we are marking a week since the attacks on Paris.
129 dead. 352 injured, 99 of them critically.
The medics they met, whether they were the doctors just finished their shift, relaxing at a local café, who set up a triage station and so began the process of saving lives, providing acute care right on the street, or whether it was those who treated them in hospital, made the difference, and were the difference.
You have lives in your hands.
Treat them well and kindly.
I am delighted to declare this Unit officially open and wish you and your families every happiness, health and luck in the season and new year ahead.
Congratulations.