Four-hour wait in some A&E departments

CRITICALLY ill patients are not being seen for up to four hours in some of the country’s busiest casualty departments, latest waiting time figures show.

Waterford Regional Hospital’s casualty department is one of the most time-efficient in the country, the new A&E waiting time figures for regional hospitals show.

All critical patients admitted to Waterford Regional Hospital (WRH) in the first half of this year were seen by a doctor within 10 minutes of admission. It compares very favourably to hospitals elsewhere in the country, where waiting times are three and four times longer in many cases.

In Limerick, for example, 35 critical (category 1) patients waited between 30 minutes and an hour to be seen by a doctor at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital.

A further 21 waited between one and two hours; four waited between two and three hours and three waited three to four hours before being examined by a casualty doctor.

Waiting times statistics at the A&E unit at WRH for the first six months of this year show that 14,870 patients were admitted to casualty there, making it one of the busiest casualty departments in the country.

The figures from January to June show that, of the 984 critically ill (category 1) patients admitted at WRH, 50% were seen immediately by a doctor and the rest were seen within 10 minutes.

Of the 2,706 category 2 or less seriously ill or injured patients, 54% were seen within 10 minutes and the balance within the hour. Of the 6,150 category 3 patients admitted, 92% were seen within one hour.

Patients waited slightly longer in Limerick before seeing a casualty doctor, the detailed data shows.

A breakdown of Limerick’s figures show that half of critical patients were seen within a half an hour. The waiting time between registration and attending a doctor for 66% per cent of less critical (category 2) patients was up to an hour; 38% of category 3 patients were seen within an hour; and 62.5% of category 4 patients were seen within two hours.

Cork University Hospital does not categorise patients by waiting time, other than extreme emergency cases, all of which were seen immediately. Of the remainder, six were seen within one hour and 10 minutes; 176 in less than 1hr 25mins; three in less than 1hr 35mins and 251 in less than 1hr 45mins.

The Department of Health said that everything possible was being done to end waiting times in our casualty departments.

“The Health Service Executive is advancing the implementation of a series of measures to improve the delivery of A&E services funded from the €70 million current funding that was made available under the Tánaiste’s 10 point plan,” a department spokesperson said.