Beds reduction will mean longer waiting times, says INMO

PATIENTS in the Mid-West will face longer waiting lists following the reduction of 25 beds at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick on Monday, a nursing union has warned.
Fourteen surgical beds and 11 medical beds were closed, while the 27 beds that were closed in the paediatric unit as part of a two-week seasonal closure reopened on Sunday.
Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation representative Noel Treanor claimed the reduction of beds means management will be forced to cut elective surgery, resulting in longer waiting times for operations and those on trollies.
Mr Treanor alleged the €8 million cut from budgets in Ennis and Nenagh hospitals following the removal of 24-hour emergency services in April 2009, which was supposed to be re-allocated to MWRH, never happened.
He said management was also informed by the Department of Health it had to pay about €6m from its own funds to cover the costs of new consultant posts which totalled €14m, the equivalent of the current overspend or under-funding.
He said hospitals in the west such as Galway and Ballinasloe have more capacity to deal with emergency patients compared with Limerick, following the reduction of beds in Ennis and Nenagh.
He called for an independent audit into the way funding is allocated to acute hospitals because of what he claims is a lack of transparency in the current process.
“It is not clear how money is allocated to hospitals in the HSE West. There is a distinct lack of transparency when it comes to establishing the basis for the allocation of funding. In my view it is totally historical and not based on the needs of patients.
“There is a need for the Department of Health to take a more measured view when it comes to spending for hospitals. It is far too easy for the department to request the hospital to cut the budget and maintain services, which isn’t possible.
“Promises were made about reconfiguration in the Mid-West, which were not delivered. Even in the middle of good economic times, I wasn’t convinced they would be delivered and now the recession is being used as an excuse.
“The INMO has been highlighting safety issues on a regular basis this year and it is hard to believe that this is not going to get worse following these cuts,” he said.
SIPTU representative Jim McGrath called for the lifting of the national recruitment ban on hiring new staff. He pointed out it would be far more cost effective to hire young nurses and porters at the first point of entry than to pay agency or nursing staff on overtime.
The union official claimed elderly care services in the region have also been badly hit by cuts – 40 beds were cut in St Camillus’ Hospital Limerick recently, while there has been a reduction of about 70 beds in St Joseph’s Hospital, Ennis over the last 12 months.
He said newly qualified nurses are being forced to leave the country because of the national moratorium.
“The whole issue of funding needs to be addressed,” he said.