A&E delays over non-urgent X-ray referrals

THE overcrowded A&E department at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick is being clogged up by non-urgent cases because GPs say they are forced to refer routine X-ray cases there in order to get prompt examinations.

It takes up to a month for a patient referred by a GP to get an X-ray examination at the hospital, the slowest response for any hospital in the region.

X-ray patients referred to St John’s Hospital, also in Limerick, get an appointment within a week, and at Nenagh General Hospital, X-ray patients referred by a GP are seen within days.

Doctors’ spokesperson in Limerick, Dr Mary Gray, said GPs were now sending non-urgent patients to the overcrowded A&E department to get X-rays.

“You might have a person with a chest infection and needs an X-ray. I have contacted the hospital and been told it would take so long to get an appointment that I’d be better off sending the patient to casualty. And this person might not necessarily be a casualty case,” said Dr Gray.

She said the delays in getting appointments for routine X-rays were clogging up the A&E department.

When contacted on Monday, September 26 for an appointment for a routine X-ray, the Mid-Western Regional Hospital informed a patient with a letter from a GP that the earliest he could be seen was October 24.

When the same patient approached the X-ray department at St John’s on September 28, he was given an appointment for Thursday, October 6 - a wait of just over one week.

Ennis General Hospital, when contacted, said it would be two and a half weeks before an appointment could be given.

Nenagh General Hospital had the promptest response and could given an appointment within five days.

Michael Noonan, TD, who as Minister for Health, approved huge spending to upgrade the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, said he would raise the matter in the Dáil.

“Obviously if a GP refers a person for an X-ray, then that X-ray is necessary and a month is much too long a wait for an X-ray requested by a GP,” he said.

Labour front bench spokeswoman, Deputy Jan O’Sullivan, said she was shocked that the major hospital in the region was so out of line in coping with routine GP X-ray referrals when compared to smaller hospitals with less resources.

“The fact that somebody goes to a hospital with a letter from a GP requesting an X-ray, while it might not be deemed urgent, it does indicate that they do need an X-ray on the advice of their family doctor.”

She said it was amazing that a hospital which has so many resources had such an inferior response time in dealing with GP referrals.

A spokesperson for the Health Service Executive Mid-West said the waiting period for GP referrals for routine X-rays is three and a half weeks at the Mid-West Regional Hospital.

“This reflects the demand on the radiology services at the hospital and the volume of patients dealt with,” she said.