THE DEPARTMENT OF Health says there are no plans as yet to close emergency departments at a number of hospitals, but that the report of a steering group on trauma treatment has yet to be delivered.

The Trauma Steering Group has been looking at treatment of trauma patients with the purpose of advising on the future of emergency medicine in this country.

A report in today’s Sunday Business Post says that one of the recommendations will be an increased centralisation of specialised emergency departments in larger hospitals. As part of that plan, the emergency departments in nine hospitals could be closed.

The report names those hospitals as Cavan General Hospital, Naas Hospital (Kildare), Portiuncula Hospital (Galway), the Midlands Regional Hospital (Westmeath), St Luke’s Hospital (Kilkenny), Wexford General Hospital, South Tipperary General Hospital, the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise and the Mercy University Hospital (Cork).

The centralisation of trauma units is seen as a way of providing greater and more specialised care for patients. Despite this, it would also mean some patients are required to travel greater distances to reach an emergency department.

Asked about the report this evening, a spokesperson for Department of Health says that no plans are currently in place to close the units and that talk that they could be is “premature”.

The spokesperson said that the department has not yet been presented with the report yet and that any decisions arising from it would be made by Health Minister Simon Harris in consultation with the HSE.

Reacting to the potential closures, Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly has said that the minister must make a commitment that any decision to ‘downgrade’ a hospital must not be based on money.

“Minister Harris needs to move immediately to reassure communities, and the wider public, that any restructuring will be done in a way that enhances service delivery and improves patient outcomes,” O’Reilly said.

Downgrading services to save money, or because the HSE cannot recruit emergency department staff, is wrong and must be halted immediately.

Read: ‘Chicken’ or ‘fish’? Irish patients need more details about their hospital food >

Read: Foreign hospitals are looking to hire Irish nurses this weekend >