Report proof that reconfiguration has failed – Independent Report now needed – Carey
Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Carey has said that the latest HSE league table show that the Mid-West Regional Hospital in Limerick is unable to cope with the added demands placed on services following the withdrawal of services at Ennis General.
In a Healthstat review of hospitals nationwide, the Mid West Regional came bottom of hospitals, with results showing that one in five patients had to wait between 12 and 24 hours to be admitted through the A&E unit.
Last year, 24 hour A&E services at Ennis General Hospital and Nenagh Hospital were abandoned by the HSE in favour of centralised services at Mid-West Regional Limerick, while there is concern that acute medicine and cardiology services could be centralised in 2011.
The result of this latest survey highlights the fact that the centralisation of service in the Mid-West was ill-thought out, poorly planned, and put patient safety and health at risk.
Deputy Carey has repeated his call for an independent review of the Taskforce report into the reconfiguration and provision of services in the Mid-West as a matter of priority.
Deputy Carey said:
“For the past two years, I and many others in the Mid-West have opposed the continued withdrawal of vital health services from regional hospitals such as Ennis General and Nenagh Hospital. The policy adopted by the HSE has been one of cut now and plan later. We were told that thervices following the withdrawal of services at Ennis General.
In a Healthstat review of hospitals nationwide, the Mid West Regional came bottom of hospitals, with results showing that one in five patients had to wait between 12 and 24 hours to be admitted through the A&E unit.
Last year, 24 hour A&E services at Ennis General Hospital and Nenagh Hospital were abandoned by the HSE in favour of centralised services at Mid-West Regional Limerick, while there is concern that acute medicine and cardiology services could be centralised in 2011.
The result of this latest survey highlights the fact that the centralisation of service in the Mid-West was ill-thought out, poorly planned, and put patient safety and health at risk.
Deputy Carey has repeated his call for an independent review of the Taskforce report into the reconfiguration and provision of services in the Mid-West as a matter of priority.
Deputy Carey said:
“For the past two years, I and many others in the Mid-West have opposed the continued withdrawal of vital health services from regional hospitals such as Ennis General and Nenagh Hospital. The policy adopted by the HSE has been one of cut now and plan later. We were told that the Mid-West Regional Hospital in Limerick was properly prepared for the additional pressure being put on it by the closure of much needed regional services. This is clearly not the case.
It is abundantly clear now that the Mid-West Limerick Regional Hospital is not able to cope with the added demand on acute services.
Since August, the number of patients waiting between 12 and 24 hours to be admitted through the A&E units has doubled, and now one in five patients will have to wait this length of time.
The figures in this report also highlight that more than one in four patients had to wait between six and 12 hours for A&E admittance, which is up from 19% in August. Other figures released on this HSE study show that the hospital is buckling under the additional strain placed on it. Staff hours lost to absenteeism is now at 6%, while the hospital’s budget was €12 million over budget, for the first nine months of the year. These figures are the hallmarks of a misguided policy, which is marked by poor planning and short-sighted logistical thinking as opposed to doing what is best for patient care.
In the past three years, despite pre-election promises to the contrary, this Fianna Fáil led government have decimated the health service in the Mid-West. State of the art scanning equipment was laid idle for months, staff have gone un-replaced, services have been suffocated of funding, and the centralised model for A&E and acute services is not working.
Staff working on the frontline are dealing with incredible added pressures, and, as Impact General Secretary Andy Pike noted, “One has to ask for whose benefit was this reconfiguration carried out.”
I am now calling on the Government to implement a review of the Taskforce report and take stock of the current level of health service provision in the Mid-West.