HSE changes Galway hospitals’ identity for seventh time in eight years

On a week where the number of Galway patients forced to wait on trolleys jumped to 37, the Health Service Executive (HSE) admitted that it had spent €22,000 on rebranding the hospital groups in the region.

It is the seventh name change for the Galway hospitals in eight years. The latest incarnation is Saolta University Health Care Group, changing from the West/North West Hospitals Group.

It comprises the two Galway hospitals, Portiuncula Hospital, Roscommon Hospital, Mayo General Hospital, Sligo Regional Hospital and Letterkenny General Hospital.

What started out as the Regional Hospital Galway, has morphed into University College Hospital Galway (UCHG), University Hospital Galway (UHG), then it was grouped with Merlin Park to become the Galway University Hospitals (GUH) before becoming Galway and Roscommon University Hospitals Group. The West/North West Hospitals Group emerged just last year.

In a statement from Setanta, the private company hired by the HSE to deal with communications, it emerged the name change had cost €22,200 in fees to a private consultancy firm which won the tender following a public competition in January.

The rebranding of the group will result in additional costs, as stationery, email addresses and website branding will have to be changed.

Ballinasloe Councillor Tim Broderick, a member of the HSE West Regional Health Forum, said he asking who had sanctioned such a massive spend at a time of widespread cutbacks.

“Is it not now time to call a moratorium on this ridiculous spending by HSE management?” the independent member exclaimed.

“We are being told budgets are not sufficient without our hospitals, at a time when roofs are leaking in psychiatric units, that €22,000 would go a long way to providing extra frontline staff in one of the hospitals.”

Former health forum chairman Cllr Padraig Conneely said the HSE were obsessed with running off to consultants at the drop of a hat.

“They spend more time on changing the names at enormous expense, sure they can’t even change a name or put a thing on paper without getting in consultants,” fumed the Fine Gael Councillor.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.