No need to restore 24-hour A&E to Ennis – Donnelly

CALLS to restore full 24-hour accident and emergency services in Ennis Hospital are not justified, according to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

Around the clock casualty cover was controversially removed from Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospital in April 2009, despite years of campaigns by Ennis Hospital Development Committee.

There have been repeated requests for Ennis Hospital to be upgraded from a Model Two to a Model Three acute healthcare facility in view of the regular chronic overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick.

No life-threatening injuries can be treated in Ennis, Nenagh or St John’s where only limited care is provided for patients who are over the age of five in the Minor Injury Clinic.

All three injury units provide timely treatment for a range of minor injuries, helping to ensure that the Emergency Department at UHL can prioritise emergency care for the sickest and most seriously injured patients who need it most.

The units also treat sports injuries, including hand and ankle injuries, and also remove foreign bodies from the eye, ear and nose.
Staff can provide quick access to diagnostics and x-rays, make the necessary arrangements to refer patients to specialist care when required, and arrange follow-up appointments within the Injury Unit where necessary.

Minister Donnelly told reporters outside Croom Orthopaedic Hospital on Thursday the advice from doctors is the provision of emergency care has become more specialised.

“What can be dangerous for a patient is coming into a hospital that doesn’t have all the available specialities. We have to make sure we have a public health service that has all the parts that are needed.

“Minor injury units can do a lot of heavy lifting. There are patients arriving into UHL who could be treated in a minor injury unit. We need more general practitioners. General practitioners needs to be resourced and hired. We need really good out-of-hours GP cover.

“The expert advice I get is the patients who are in a really bad way need to come to a big hospital to get the best possible care. We have to make sure that all other parts of the system are in place as well.

“UHL is doing too much of the heavy lifting for the whole area. We have to integrate community care and hospital care, which worked incredibly well during the vaccination programme.

“We need to design care around the patient by investing in community, GP care, public health nurses and primary care centres.”

By Dan Danaher