€12m unit ‘won’t cut A&E queues’
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has asked hospital management at Cork University Hospital to consider re-developing parts of the existing A&E into a holding bay which can be used to take some of the trolley spillover from the new unit.
CUH A&E consultant, Stephen Cusack said yesterday that such a proposal “was an admission of defeat” but admitted that the “trollies problem is a separate issue from the A&E opening”.
The purpose-built new casualty wing is twice the size of the existing unit and has a separate triage area for patient assessment, x-ray facilities, a resuscitation area and a ward area for day procedures.
INO Industrial Relations Officer Patsy Doyle said there would be just two extra treatment cubicles at the new wing and so the trolley figures would not drop.
“People are talking about 47 new beds but 35 of these will be used for day procedure, or scheduled day operations, and most of the rest will replace the observation beds that are in the existing facility,” she said.
“At one stage in the past week, we had up to 30 people on trollies at CUH. The winter hasn’t really begun yet and numbers are just getting bigger and bigger,” she said.
“We will have much more space in the unit but there won’t be any sizeable drop in trolley figures.”
Health Minister Mary Harney has said that overcrowding at A&Es is the biggest priority of her ministry.
Scheduled surgery was cancelled at a Galway hospital this week due to overcrowding at the casualty unit.
A&E Consultant, Stephen Cusack said that overcrowding at A&Es was linked to overall hospital bed figures but said “progress was being made.”
He said that he was delighted with the new facility and that it would make working conditions much better.
A Southern Health Board spokeswoman said that this would be a great improvement in efficiency and comfort for staff and patients.
