VHI private clinics delay acute care for patients

AN emergency medicine consultant has expressed alarm that patients needing acute hospital care have had their treatment delayed as a result of presenting initially at the VHI’s new private casualty clinics in Dublin.

The VHI confirmed yesterday that more than 100 of the 7,000 patients treated at the SwiftCare Clinic in Dundrum since it opened six months ago had to be transferred to a public hospital’s accident and emergency department.

The VHI’s second clinic in Dublin City University in Glasnevin opened this month but as yet has had no discernible impact on Beaumont Hospital’s A&E.

Dr James Binchy of the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine said his organisation was particularly concerned that treatment for serious conditions was being delayed as a result of patients having to be transferred from the clinics to hospital A&E departments.

The VHI has stressed that both clinics are designed specifically to deal with minor injuries and other conditions that can be treated outside of A&E. Where acute hospital care was needed, medical staff at the clinics took appropriate stabilisation measures before arranging for the patient to be taken by ambulance to nearby A&E department.

“People are using this service which was never designed to compete with A&Es, it is designed to complement them,” a spokesperson said.

Dr Binchy said the situation resulted in a duplication of services and caused treatment to be delayed. “We are concerned that if a patient attends the clinic with a chest pain and it turns out to be a heart attack, there is an inherent delay in their treatment.”

Dr Binchy pointed out that the clinics appeared to have been promoted by the Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney and that people believed they would relieve A&E overcrowding.

“There is no evidence internationally that these clinics have an effect on A&E overcrowding, or A&E attendances,” he stressed.

Dr Binchy said he had no objection to people wanting a choice and being prepared to pay for it. “I would be worried if the Department started funding these clinics rather than funding the development of hospital emergency departments throughout the country.”