Nurses warn against proposed A&E transfer
Liam Doran said: “It will be taking people from A&E departments in Ennis and Nenagh, and putting them into an already overcrowded overstretched A&E in Dooradoyle, without the enhanced infrastructure required in additional medical emergency consultants and new clinical nurse practitioners.
“None of those key components of a new service are in place. What is being proposed is to take somebody from a bed in Ennis and Nenagh and put them on a trolley in Dooradoyle and that is not progress.”
Mr Doran said the community at large is becoming increasingly concerned at the speed with which the new A&E changes are being progressed in the midwest. “We know GPs are becoming increasingly concerned, our members are very concerned.” He said the INO was supportive of the Teamwork plan which proposed the A&E changes, but on the basis that it is fully funded.
“This is a very poor relation of Teamwork. Our members are telling us and telling us very sincerely that the [A&E] situation at present is far from perfect at the moment, but that it will not be improved by what is being proposed on April 6,” said Mr Doran.
Additional nursing resources had not been put in place in Dooradoyle to fast track patients care’, he said, and there were no plans to provide them.
“If those necessary building blocks are not there, we do run a real risk of making a bad situation worse,” he said. “It is being driven by money rather than patient care at the moment and that’s wrong.” He was speaking at the opening of new INO offices in Limerick.
Sheila Dickson, president of the INO, hit out at the lack of detailed information being given to nurses about the new changes in A&E services in the midwest.
She said: “While the outline has been given, there is very little detail as to what numbers they are talking about. And there is a concern that the process will commence without the supports being put in place to have it up and running in a proper manner and that is the concern of our members.”
She said there had been very little consultation on the ground on the proposed A&E.
“... the devil is in the detail and nurses at the coal face don’t believe it [will] be manageable unless there is much more consultation before any reconfiguration takes place,” Ms Dickson added.
