Just what the doctor ordered

PUBLIC health services in Clare and the Mid-West have been plagued by a plethora of problems due to chronic under-funding and staffing embargoes.

Regular reports about patients suffering the indignity of being accommodated on trolleys in hospital corridors as a result of a lack of acute beds at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick and, occasionally, Ennis hospital have prompted stinging criticism from health campaigners and public representatives.

Despite promises from successive health ministers, including the present incumbent Dr James Reilly, people are becoming increasingly worried about the ability of the health system to respond to the medical needs of public patients, who don’t have the fall-back option of private healthcare.
Thankfully, however, a good news story has emerged this week.

Two voluntary groups and a regional health charity combined resources to provide much-needed hope to a group of patients who were previously short-changed by the public health service.

Their hard work and dedication paid off after Finance Minister Michael Noonan turned the sod for a new €13 million development at Limerick hospital on Monday.

This major capital investment is fully funded by the Mid-Western Hospitals Development Trust, which is delivering both a symptomatic breast cancer unit and a dermatology centre, and the Mid-West branches of both the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland (TLC4CF) and the Parkinson’s Association of Ireland.
They have raised the funding through patients themselves but the project is also generously backed by the JP MacManus Pro-Am Committee.

Many patients, who were otherwise travelling up to 300 miles in round trips to other hospitals for treatment, will receive optimum levels of care here on their doorstep in the Mid-West when the centre is completed.

Apart from the provision of the site in Limerick by the Health Service Executive, it is accepted that this development would not have been completed in the near future only for the contribution of the three groups.

Their extraordinary achievement is illustrated by the fact that TLC4CF, which is made up of volunteers from Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary, have raised €4.2m in recent years in the midst of a recession, which included a €3m donation from the JP McManus Pro-Am Committee.

In fact, TLC4CF are continuing to fundraise and are determined to raise €700,000 to cover the cost of equipping this unit over the next two years.

In addition to providing proper facilities for these patients, this state-of-the-art development will increase life expectancy.

The contribution of the Mid-Western Hospitals Development Trust has been vital. Under the chairmanship of the late Louis Craven from Newmarket-on-Fergus, this registered charity has transformed the delivery of health services throughout the Mid-West, particularly in the area of cancer treatment, over the last 15 years.

It was fitting that Mr Craven’s role was recognised at the official ceremony marking the start of work on the development, which included a presentation to trust representative Nollaig Lonergan.

Chairperson of the joint-committee established by the three organisations, Una Anderson Ryan, predicted the six-storey building would signal the beginning of a new era and stressed the new standard of care would enhance the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of patients across the Mid-West Region annually.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, Ennis hospital celebrated a major coup this week when it beat off stiff competition from bigger hospitals with multiple resources to be awarded the Biomnis Innovation in Quality of Service Delivery Award.

This award represents a remarkable turnaround for Ennis hospital, where services were criticised in a damning HIQA report a few years ago following a number of misdiagnosis cases, including the one involving the late Ann Moriarty.

Some local health campaigners felt Ennis hospital was scapegoated at the time in this report following years of alleged under-investment and they argued that deficiencies also existed in larger hospitals, such as the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick and University College Hospital, Galway.

They were subsequently proven right after the HSE’s own Healthstat indictor measuring hospital performance highlighted a number of deficits concerning access, resources and waiting times for specialist services.

This achievement is illustrated by the fact that Ennis qualified for the final with Beaumont, St James’ Hospital, Cork University Hospital, Mater Hospital and St Vincent’s Private Hospital.
It was subsequently shortlisted with the Mater and St James’ and managed to punch way about its weight by winning the overall innovation award.

Critical x-ray reports for Clare patients are now available within 15 minutes when requested at Ennis, thanks to the new radiology service.

Clare GPs are also delighted with the new imaging service due to the high quality and great feedback from the service. Dr Billy O’Connell pointed out Clare patients can be sent directly for an x-ray in Ennis once they had a form completed by a GP and are then seen by a doctor in the emergency department after the x-ray, which is another positive development.

Traditionally, once a patient was x-rayed, a film was developed using a chemical process and left in a consultant radiologist’s office for examination. It was a relatively slow process.

However, using the telemedicine system, an x-ray goes up on an IT system, it gets referred for reporting and the hospital prioritises it on the basis of emergency, urgent, in-patient or out-patient and gets reported within agreed timeframes.

The number of repeat x-rays required is minimal compared to the old practice. Previously, the consultant radiologist had to read the x-ray and dictate his report through a dictaphone, which had to be queued to be typed.

Ennis is the only acute hospital using telemedicine to provide most of its main live radiology service. Judging by the dramatic reduction in waiting times, it seems that Ennis hospital could be used as a model for the rollout of this service nationwide.