Health watchdog remains concerned over hospital risk

THE state’s health watchdog says it remains concerned that patients are at serious risk at the country’s busiest hospital.

The Health Information and Quality Authority said it was concerned that Tallaght Hospital was not effectively managing the risk to patients needing to be admitted to the hospital.

The authority that published the terms of reference for its statutory inquiry into the safety and governance of care at the hospital’s emergency department yesterday, said it had previously sought assurances from the hospital as to how the risks were managed.

“Following a recent patient safety event, the authority continues not to be assured that the hospital is effectively managing the risks to patients requiring acute admission to the hospital and who receive initial care in the emergency department and believes that this poses a serious risk to these types of patients,” it said.

The investigation will assess the quality, safety and governance of services provided to patients who attend the emergency department and are awaiting admission to the hospital.

It will also focus on the patient journey through the hospital system — from admission to discharge.

The investigation was announced last Saturday after a coroner said Tallaght sounded like a very dangerous place to be for anybody, let alone a sick patient.

Dublin County Coroner, Dr Kieran Geraghty, was responding to comments about conditions at the hospital by an emergency consultant at the inquest into the death of a patient who had been left in a corridor because of a bed shortage.

Members of the Tallaght Hospital Group met Minister for Health James Reilly yesterday to express their concerns about over-crowding in the hospital’s emergency department.