HSE Director: Downgrading of Portlaoise Hospital could 'have made things worse'
The Director General of the HSE says downgrading Portlaoise Hospital might have caused even more difficulties than maintaining it as a level 3 facility.
Tony O'Brien has been appearing before the Oireachtas Health Committee over HIQA's critical investigation into the hospital.
A decision was made by the Government not to downgrade the hospital, because of its maternity and paediatric units.
Tony O'Brien says the hospital is under-resourced, but that is improving: "If we are going to be held accountable for political decisions, if we are going to be held accountable for the resources that are or are not available to us, and maybe we should be, then we are going to have to embrace that and take it forward.
"It may be suggested that at various times in the past, the right thing to do would have been to withdraw a variety of services from Portlaoise. There's a very real possibility that if that had been done it would have made things a whole lot worse.
"The resources we have are the resources we have."
