Staff devastated at plan to close hospital’s high-dependency unit

STAFF at Ennis General Hospital are devastated for patients over the Health Service Executive’s plan to close the hospital’s high-dependency unit from next month.

A spokesperson for nursing staff at the hospital expressed concerns ahead of a public meeting in Ennis tonight on the HSE plan.

Local doctors and medical staff are expected to use the meeting to outline their concerns at the HSE move to close the high-dependency care unit at Ennis from March 1, as coronary care services are centralised into Limerick Regional Hospital.

All of the general election candidates in the four-seat constituency have been invited to attend tonight’s meeting.

The spokesperson said yesterday: “We have been told by the HSE the high-dependency unit is moving into Limerick Regional Hospital from March 1.

“It has already been shown that Limerick Regional is unable to cope with the centralisation of services into the hospital. Limerick is in a state of crisis.”

Over the past 18 months, the HSE has been centralising acute services in the mid-west at Limerick by ending 24-hour emergency department (ED) and acute surgical services at Ennis and Nenagh General Hospitals.

The latest Healthstat report has found that the ED at Limerick requires urgent attention, with over 20% of ED patients &waiting between six and 12 hours to be admitted and around 15% waiting between 12 and 24 hours for admission.

The spokesperson said: “What is being proposed now will be the death knell for acute care at Ennis General. The hospital will have an anaesthetist from only 9am to 6pm each day.”

She added: “Our jobs will be unaffected by this and our concern is for the patient and we feel betrayed by the various promises made by politicians over the years.”

The spokesperson said the meeting will serve to highlight what is going on with the hospital and hear the politicians’ views on what is planned.

Yesterday, former president of the Medical Council and FF general election candidate for Clare, Dr John Hillery said the reconfiguration of health services in the mid-west should be reviewed in light of concerns expressed by health professionals.

He said the policy had led to a reduction in local services before resources had been put in place to operate the changed structure, resulting in patient safety being compromised.

“The reconfiguration policy is in line with best practice and fundamentally is designed to enhance patient safety,” he said.

“However, the roll-out of this policy in the mid-west is being undermined by management and structural changes within the Department of Health and HSE,” said Dr Hillery.