THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) was warned yesterday of the danger of centralising too many services at one hospital without first putting in place the additional resources required.
The warning was issued by the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) a day after the HSE formally confirmed plans to centralise round-the-clock AE, surgery and critical care services for the mid-west region at Limerick regional hospital.
Tony Fitzpatrick, the INO representative for the northeast, said there were a record 40 patients on trolleys at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda yesterday, 15 of whom had been on trolleys since Friday night. Ambulances were being held up at the hospital due to the shortage of trolleys.
“This crisis is a result of mistakes made in the past where services provided at other hospitals in the northeast, eg trauma, orthopaedics, etc, were transferred without putting resources/ infrastructure in place to cope with the extra demands being put on the hospital.”
He said the emergency department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital does not have the capacity to deal with the rising number of attendances at that unit.
The HSE admitted there were “severe pressures” on the AE in Drogheda and that elective surgery might have to be cancelled. It added that a new AE unit would be in place this year.
Mr Fitzpatrick’s comments came as the HSE tried to reassure people in the midwest that Limerick regional hospital will be able to cope with the extra work placed on it this year when all major surgery for the midwest is centralised there and when round-the-clock AE services at Ennis and Nenagh general hospitals are curtailed in the second quarter of the year, resulting in major emergencies being diverted to the Limerick hospital.
The HSE emphasised the numbers attending AE in Ennis and Nenagh out of hours were small, and said the changes were being put in place to improve patient safety.
However, the Labour Party predicted “mass protests” in the mid-west over the plans.
Labour Senator Alan Kelly, who is based in Nenagh, described the plans as medical lunacy.
“What it boils down to is the fact that the HSE plan to take 50,000 patients a year away from small hospitals and put them into beds and infrastructure that are never likely to be built.”
Limerick East TD and Labour’s spokeswoman on health Jan O’Sullivan questioned if the HSE had received any commitment at national level that the resources needed to implement the plan would be provided.
Fine Gael TD for Clare Joe Carey warned that withdrawing 24-hour AE services from Ennis hospital would lead to loss of life.
Sinn Féin’s health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin criticised the HSE’s current policy of slashing services at local hospitals and over-centralising services in already overstretched regional hospitals.
Speaking at HSE headquarters in Limerick, consultant surgeon Paul Burke, who is leading the change project, said 80 per cent of the population in the midwest lived within 30 minutes of Limerick.
He dismissed fears that the reorganisation of services in the region would lead to a capacity crisis at Limerick’s regional hospital, adding that “most of these patients end up in Limerick anyway”.
“I’m not saying there are no bed issues in Limerick – of course there are bed issues in Limerick – but with a more stratified and integrated structure patients who could be better looked after locally in Ennis or Nenagh will hopefully be discharged out to those hospitals more quickly.” .
Cloughjordan-based GP Dr Róisín Costello criticised the HSE’s plan, and said GPs in north Tipperary have not even been consulted by the HSE with regard to the proposals.