Recreational pursuits may be behind decrease in weekend A&E admissions

A big drop in admissions to the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick at weekends may be attributed to people putting health concerns aside rather than missing out on social or recreational pursuits on Saturdays and Sundays, a spokesperson for the hospital said yesterday.

If you do have an accident or become ill, Sunday is the best day in coping with a health issue in the Mid-West. Figures released by the HSE on patient numbers attending UL Hospital’s ED for February and March show Sunday is the quietest day by far. A clear pattern also emerges on different days of the week. While admissions are at their lowest on Sundays, they rise sharply to spike on Tuesday and Wednesdays, before dropping over Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

A spokesperson said a number of factors may lead to the drop in admissions to the ED on Saturday and Sunday.

The spokesperson said: “It may be that people give greater priority to recreation pursuits at the weekend rather than go to the hospital to have some matter seen to it. It would make for interesting research.

“Another factor is that GPs now don’t work at weekends and cover is provided by Shannon Doc. People might prefer to wait until Monday or early in the week to go to their own GP to get a medical matter seen to rather than go to Shannon Doc. Also with elderly people, families might defer having an elderly relative, who may need to be taken to hospital, seen to at weekends as it might be inconvenient.”

A Limerick GP, who asked not to be named, said the figures bear out a suspicion by doctors that many people ending up in ED are not emergency cases in the first place.

He said: “If you are so ill as to be in need of urgent admission to hospital, it shouldn’t matter what day of the week it is. If you are very sick it doesn’t make you less sick if it is a Saturday or a Sunday.”