PLANS ARE under way to merge two of the main acute hospitals in Dublin, the Mater and St Vincent’s University Hospital. Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday said that “the Mater and Vincent’s will be becoming one very soon”. She said she welcomed this development.
Under the plan, services would continue to be based on the existing campuses of the hospitals on the north and southside of Dublin. However administratively they would be run as a single institution.
The plan would see the establishment of joint clinical departments between the two hospitals, while staff could be assigned between the two sites. The proposed merger would create one of the largest hospitals in the country with a total capacity of more than 1,000 beds although not all are currently in operation.
The proposed merger comes under an overall plan to establish a new Dublin Academic Medical Centre which would involve the two hospitals and the medical school at University College Dublin.
Sources said last night that the impetus for the merger had come from the hospitals and UCD and that Ms Harney had given her backing to the proposals in recent months.
Internal top-level correspondence between the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive, seen by The Irish Times, suggests that under the new plan the two hospitals would have a single unitary board and one management team.
The documentation, which was sent by the secretary general of the Department of Health Michael Scanlan to the then chief executive of the HSE Brendan Drumm in August, states the plan is aimed at creating one integrated hospital on two sites.
The documentation indicates that under the plan the Minister wants to see flexibility in the movement and assignment of staff at all levels including medical, nursing, other health professionals and management and administrative personnel between the two sites.
The correspondence says that the Minister also wants to see the establishment of close working relationships such as joint clinical departments across the two sites at a very early stage “to illustrate in practical terms that the new entity is functioning as one hospital”.
The correspondence also suggests that Ms Harney is anxious to see “the implementation of measures to eliminate unnecessary duplication of services, achieve economies of scale and produce real savings”.
But in his letter to the HSE, Mr Scanlan warns the Minister would be very concerned to ensure the establishment of the proposed new Dublin Academic Medical Centre did “not hinder the development of co-operative relationships with other hospitals in the Dublin area and beyond”.
