Unions: Hospital rating no surprise

SENIOR trade union officials said it came as no surprise that the regional hospital in Limerick was ranked as one of the two worst performing hospitals in the country.

In the latest Health Service Executive Healthstat survey, the Mid-Western Regional Hospital along with Cork University Hospital were the two worst performing hospitals out of a total of 29 evaluated.

In the green, amber and red marking system, Healthstat marked both hospitals as ‘red’, meaning services are unsatisfactory and require urgent attention.

The top performing hospitals given a ‘green’ rating were Cavan General Hospital, St James’s Hospital, Dublin, Letterkenny General Hospital and St Vincent’s University Hospital.

Over the past 18 months, the HSE has been centralising acute services in the mid-west at Limerick by ending 24-hour emergency department & services at Ennis and Nenagh hospitals and also ending acute surgical services at those hospitals.

The HSE is continuing the process and is due to centralise acute medicine and cardiology services from February of next year.

However, figures contained in the HSE Healthstat report for September show that one in five patients had to wait between 12 and 24 hours to be admitted through the mid-west hospital’s emergency department& — more than a doubling on the August figure.

More than 25% of patients had to wait between six and 12 hours — an increase on the 19% that were waiting the same period in August.

The figures show that absenteeism at Limerick also requires urgent attention, with 6% of staff hours lost to absenteeism.

The figures also show that the hospital’s budget was 11% or €12 million over budget for first nine months of the year.

Yesterday, assistant general secretary of IMPACT, Andy Pike, said: “The Healthstat reports come as no surprise to the staff working in the service who have to deal with overcrowding and bed shortages day in day out.

“The reconfiguration of acute hospital services resulted in patients being directed away from Ennis and Nenagh General Hospitals and compelled to seek admission and treatment in Limerick within an already overstretched facility.

“One has to ask for whose benefit was this reconfiguration carried out. Whilst consultants no longer have to fret over the need to supervise junior doctors out of hours in the satellite hospitals, and whilst the HSE has saved significant sums through downgrading the smaller hospitals, patients appear to be paying the price.

“This situation will only be exacerbated once all critical care provision is centralised in Limerick in 2011. Far from being a centre of excellence the HSE has turned the Mid-Western Regional Hospital into a centre for overcrowding and long waits on trolleys. Patients in the mid-west region deserve far better than this.”

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation industrial relations officer Mary Fogarty said: “The results are not surprising as staff at the hospital are under constant pressure in the absence of resources being put in place. The region has lost 50 beds since October 2009 with the centralisation of services and no additional beds have been provided.”

The HSE yesterday did not comment on the Healthstat results yesterday.