A&E fundraising letter was unauthorised, says hospital

A LETTER sent to Dublin GPs by a staff member at Beaumont Hospital A&E department, requesting help in fundraising for an ultrasound machine was written by a member of nursing staff without authorisation from the hospital, management claimed last night.

In the letter, the staff member said: “The department is in urgent need of an ultrasound machine which is required to speedily assess internal organ damage resulting from traffic accidents and knife trauma wounds.” It added: “It would be reasonable to assume that the machine would be a standard piece of A&E equipment.”

However, the letter said the hospital was unable to provide for the ultrasound machine from its annual budget and that there was “no alternative” but for staff to raise the necessary €24,000 themselves.

GPs were asked if they wished to take part in a golf classic at Beaverstown Golf Club in May, for a fee per team of €450.

Dr Cyril Daly, based in Killester, Co Dublin, who received the letter, said it was a scandal that the A&E department did not have its own ultrasound machine.

“If you have a knife stuck between under shoulder blades, it is no time to go flashing your plan E card at the Gullawntha Medical Clinic with the oak tree in the atrium and the three ladies playing the harp. You will be redirected to the public hospital,” Dr Daly said.

However, last night Beaumont Hospital chief executive Liam Duffy said the GPs who had received the letter had been “seriously misled”.

“The letter which Dr Daly received was written by a single member of the nursing staff, without authorisation by the hospital,” Mr Duffy said. “It does not represent the views of the emergency department, as it purports. The fund raising initiative referred to in the letter to Dr Daly has not been submitted for approval.”

He said the letter “seriously misrepresented” the needs of the “exceptionally hard working emergency department” in a manner that was unfair to both the hospital and the agencies which fund its activities.

“Dr Daly was told a dedicated ultrasound is urgently needed, it would be ‘reasonable to assume that the machine would be a standard piece of A&E equipment’, the hospital is unable to fund it and the ED staff have no alternative but to fund raise. All of this is totally incorrect,” Mr Duffy said.

“Fact: This is not a ‘standard piece of equipment’ in Irish emergency departments. Staff in Beaumont’s ED have the same access to ultrasound as their counterparts in other large acute hospitals in Dublin, including the Mater, Tallaght and St Vincent’s. None of these hospital’s EDs currently have dedicated ultrasound equipment residing within them.

“Fact: Equipment purchases for the ED are prioritised by the hospital’s management in consultation with the ED team led by the consultants. “The desirability of having a dedicated ultrasound machine within the department was raised within the past six months. In response, the hospital has included it within a much larger tender currently under way for new ultrasound equipment for the entire hospital which will be completed this year.”