Doctors call for 1,200 acute beds

DOCTORS have called for an extra 1,200 acute hospital beds to help resolve serious capacity problems in the system.

Cork consultant geriatrician Cillian Twomey attacked the continuing “trolley trauma nonsense” in many hospitals, which were providing sub-quality care as a result of capacity problems.

While there was also a need for additional community care and rehabilitation facilities, he believed the immediate need was for additional acute beds.

At the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) conference, in Killarney, Dr Twomey called for an end to an inhuman way of dealing with acute illness in a number of hospitals.

“By and large, we have a fantastically good health service in this country if anything serious happens [to a person], but when it comes to less than emergency care, the service leaves a lot to be desired. Unless the capacity issue is addressed, we will have inadequate care.”

Dr Twomey said there had been several reports on the health service in recent years, but their recommendations had not been implemented.

A report six years ago had identified a need for 3,000 extra beds, which had not yet been fully provided.

The conference called on the HSE to identify a timescale of no more than two years to rectify the current deficit of 1,200 public acute beds, highlighted in its recent bed capacity report.

IMO consultant chairman Sean Tierney said problems of long trolley waits and lack of capacity were not going to be addressed without additional physical capacity in the system.

Doctors also passed a number of motions critical of Health Minister Mary Harney’s planned co-location of public and private hospital facilities.

Plans to provide eight centres of excellence for cancer treatment also came under fire.

Dr Gerard Crotty, of Tullamore General Hospital, claimed the proposal had been extremely poorly thought out.

“This proposal won’t happen without extra resources being provided. It’s a half-baked cancer plan at the moment,” he said.

Dr Cillian Twomey voiced reservations about the use of the term “excellence” and said the implication could be drawn from it that services in a range of other areas were not also excellent.

There were also calls for the immediate rolling out of the cancer screening and breast check programme countrywide.

Mayo GP Eleanor Fitzgerald said many lives could be saved in the west of Ireland if services there had been provided as quickly as they had been in Dublin.

“We need this screening programme to avoid late diagnosis of cancer. People around the country are suffering because of the delays,” Dr Fitzgerald stressed.