Pilot scheme ‘will leave patients permanently on hospital trolleys’

PATIENTS will be permanently on trolleys when the first pilot scheme of the Hanly Report on hospital restructuring is implemented, hospital consultants warned yesterday.

The Mid-West has been given the go-ahead as the first pilot region for the implementation of hospital rationalisation and this will see Ennis and Nenagh losing their acute hospital services.

The Mid-West Regional Hospital in Limerick will be the main centre for all acute patients in the region with patients from Ennis and Nenagh having to travel there.

However, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) warned yesterday that this will lead to a bed occupancy of 104% in Limerick unless the Department of Health provides substantial capital funding for a large number of new beds in Limerick.

“Our research shows that patients will be permanently on trollies, if the bed capacity problem is not addressed,” said IHCA secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick.

The Hanly Report recommends the creation of regional centres of excellence where patients would get specialist services and local hospitals will just deal with day procedures.

However, there is no point in bringing in this plan if the bed capacity issue is not addressed and the department starts delivering on the 3,000 extra beds promised in their Health Strategy two years ago, said Mr Fitzpatrick. However, the Department of Health insisted it was committed to providing the 3,000 extra beds “But funding is an ongoing debate and the number of beds will depend on what is allocated in the upcoming Budget,” said a department spokesman.

An independent chairman will be appointed to ensure that there is an adequate supply of beds in the Mid-West region.

Furthermore, the reconfiguration of acute services there will involve a two-way traffic of caseload between the Mid-West Regional hospital in Limerick and Nenagh and Ennis general hospitals, according to the department.

Many of the minor surgical procedures will move from Limerick to Ennis and Nenagh freeing up beds for more complex acute cases from these two hospitals, said a department spokesman.

Meanwhile, up to 20,000 people are expected to march in Ennis on November 15 to protest the downgrading of the local general hospital proposed in the Hanly Report. Ennis Hospital Development Committee chairman Councillor Joe Atkins told a local public meeting on Tuesday night that up to 20 lives are saved and irreparable brain damage prevented by prompt emergency care at the local hospital every year.

“Hanly proposes the plundering of resources from Ennis and Nenagh and moving services away from the people,” Mr Atkins told more than 600 people. “We owe it to ourselves, to our families and to our children that we defend our county hospital. It is up to the people of Clare.”

The Mid-West Regional Hospital will not be able to cope with the extra capacity, because its accident and emergency (A&E) department dealt with 55,000 people last year, said Mr Atkins.

Ennis A&E had 23,000 patients, while Nenagh records up to 18,000 in the same year.