Surgeries deferred over A&E logjam
The HSE last night issued a statement saying almost 400 patients sought care at the hospital’s emergency department between 8am on Saturday and 4pm yesterday, of whom 117 required emergency admission.
On foot of this, the HSE said it was “regrettable” that some elective procedures have had to be deferred. It said the procedures would be rescheduled as soon as possible and that the situation was “being reviewed continuously” by hospital management.
It said it was working closely with the Department of Health’s Special Delivery Unit, which was established to unblock access to acute services by improving the flow of patients through the system.
In an effort to tackle the logjam at the hospital, management has asked that patients contact their GP or Southdoc in the first instance “and explore all other options available to them” prior to attending the emergency department, if their needs are not urgent.
According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), there were 27 patients on trolleys at CUH yesterday.
However, unlike other hospitals where trolley numbers were also high, additional patients were not placed on wards, a practice the INMO has repeatedly criticised as unsafe.
Liam Doran, INMO general secretary, said the decision at CUH to cancel non-emergency surgery was a sensible one, in view of the overcrowding.
“They realise that they have a problem and they have to de-escalate. It’s common sense when you have a surge like that to recognise the pressure on staff and to take appropriate action,” Mr Doran said.
However, he was critical of the move to relieve overcrowding at the emergency department in the Mid West Regional Hospital in Limerick where 20 extra patients were placed on wards, according to figures compiled by the INMO under its new “ward watch” project.
“Limerick never cancels surgery, it just compounds the problem by putting extra patients in the wards. This is never the answer to overcrowding, it compromises the care of the entire patient population, and it doesn’t reduce the level of overcrowding in the emergency department one jot. When you get to that level of overcrowding, it’s about beds.”
Trolley figures at CUH so far this year are favourable compared to last year. An INMO study shows that between Mar 11 and Apr 5 last year, there were 515 patients on trolleys, compared to 273 for the same period this year.
However in Limerick, for the same period, the figure has gone from 271 to 376, while a further 357 patients have been placed on wards.
