Patients still face long waits

NEW HSE figures show that patients attending emergency departments in seven hospitals across the country can be waiting more than 24 hours to be admitted.

Five of the institutions concerned are major hospitals serving large catchment areas: Galway University Hospital (GUH); the Midwest Regional Hospital, Limerick; Cork University Hospital (CUH); the Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore; and Waterford Regional Hospital.

The other hospitals breaching the 24-hour waiting period in the HSE’s latest Healthstat report include Portiuncula in Co Galway and the Adelaide Meath Hospital including the National Children’s hospital in Dublin.

A spokesman for Minister for Health James Reilly said last night that he would be very concerned at patients waiting such periods, but said he has taken clear steps to deal with the issue, including the establishment of a “special delivery unit” whose first task is to address overcrowding in emergency departments.

The Healthstat figures for CUH show that in May about half of patients waited for 12-24 hours to be admitted, while it took the same time for 40 per cent of patients at GUH to be admitted. At Waterford Regional, 80 per cent of patients were admitted in less than six hours.

Prof Gary Courtney, the joint national clinical lead with the HSE’s Acute Medicine Programme, said yesterday that waiting more than six hours is “unacceptable”.

Prof Courtney said he is optimistic that within two years 95 per cent of patients will be admitted within six hours. “Every hospital has agreed to institute our plan,” he said.

A spokesman from the HSE said: “Any breach in the 24-hour standard is flagged immediately to senior managers who are required to address the situation as a matter of urgency.”

He said 17 hospitals are participating in a new system that records when each patient arrives in the emergency department, and when they are admitted or discharged.

“Of the hospitals covered by this, the average waiting time for May 2011, from time of arrival to leaving the emergency department, was 6.6 hours. This compares to an average of eight hours in January 2011,” he said.