‘It doesn’t make sense’ – Kilkenny TD hits out at HSE decision to move Kilcreene services to Waterford
KILKENNY TD Kathleen Funchion has urged the Health Services Executive (HSE) to abandon plans to move orthopaedic services from Kilcreene Hospital to Waterford.
Kilcreene Regional Orthopaedic Hospital (KROP) is the elective orthopaedic hospital for the South East region.
In response to a parliamentary question – seen by KilkennyNow.ie – the HSE confirmed plans to relocate all orthopaedic services from the Kilkenny hospital to University Hospital Waterford (UHW).
However, the Kilkenny Sinn Féin TD said the plan to move services from Kilcreene to a new ‘centre of excellence’ at UHW “doesn’t make sense”.
Deputy Funchion told KilkennyNow.ie: “There is no timeframe for the HSE plan and they haven’t even identified where the facility will be in Waterford. There’s no space on the grounds of UHW and it is going to take years to build.”
The Kilkenny TD argued that taxpayers’ money would be far better spent by developing the existing facilities at Kilcreene instead of moving them to a costly new centre in Waterford.
She added: “Kilcreene provides a very good service, it always gets good reports, so how does it make sense to move these services to Waterford? If would be far more effective to expand the existing services at Kilcreene and make it the centre of excellence.”
