Significant delays for Clare patients at Limerick hospital

CLARE patients who have to travel to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick for treatment are experiencing significant delays, Deputy Pat Breen has claimed.

Deputy Breen believes not enough additional resources were put in place at Limerick hospital to deal with extra Clare patients out of hours following the removal of 24-hour accident and emergency services in Ennis and Nenagh hospitals last April.
He also expressed concern about reports indicating that ICU units in Limerick and Nenagh are due for closure.
According to a reply to a Dáil question tabled by Deputy Breen, the average monthly increase from Clare patients attending Limerick hospital out-of-hours was 176.5, a 13.2% increase, while the average hike in in-patients from Clare was 115.
Prior to April 6, the average number of emergency attendance to Limerick hospital was 4,683.5 and after this date, the monthly average increased to 4,737, which translates to an overall increase of 1.1%.
Daytime attendances have not experienced an increase, with overall attendance reduced by an average of 121 patients per month, a 3.6% decrease. Of this figure, an average of 15 fewer patients per month were from the Clare region.
His comments came when over 50 nurses staged a lunchtime protest outside the gates of the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick on Friday to highlight their concerns over staff shortages and overcrowding at the hospital.
The Irish Nurses’ Organisation and SIPTU have accused HSE management of failing to put sufficient resources in place to deal with a reconfiguration of acute services in the Mid-West region, which has seen the closure of emergency departments at both Nenagh and Ennis general hospitals.
Those services have been centralised to the Limerick hospital. However, unions say the new system has caused severe overcrowding, which is unsafe for patients and staff. The INO has also threatened to escalate its campaign of industrial action in the new year.
The situation at the casualty department in Limerick reached crisis point on December 1 when there were 29 people waiting for admission. Management at the hospital revealed they believe there are people in the hospital who should be discharged earlier from other wards, which would then take the pressure from the emergency department.
In a letter sent to unions, John O’Brien, national director of the HSE’s winter initiative, appealed to unions to sit down and discuss their grievances. Mr O’Brien has also rejected claims that the reconfiguration was having a detrimental effect on services.
Mr O’Brien stated that the dramatic 54% reduction in the number of patients waiting unnecessarily in the emergency department this month before they got to an in-patient bed was  “conveniently” excluded from the INO’s notice regarding the lunchtime protest since hospital management took action on December 2 last.
They stated that the INO ballot in favour of industrial action and their protest was ‘paradoxical’ to say the least.
At a time when jobs and services in the Mid-West are haemorrhaging, and when health service employment is effectively “frozen” in other areas, he stated the “reconfiguration” programme has secured additional funding of over €6m and 70 extra jobs for the people in the region.