Cork hospitals ask people to keep A&E for emergencies as patient numbers grow
The emergency department at Mercy University Hospital Cork is experiencing a surge in presentaions. Hospital IT systems have been crippled after a cyberattack on HSE systems.
Management at Mercy University Hospital (MUH) have appealed to patients not to present at A&E unless in an emergency.
In a statement, this afternoon the hospital also said it has activated its escalation policy to deal with the high number of attendees at the emergency department.
The MUH said due "to a surge in activity" at the hospital's emergency department, patients with less urgent treatment requirements are encouraged to access other care services.
The appeal mirrors similar requests from management at Cork University Hospital (CUH) for patients to avail where possible of other services like their GP before presenting at the emergency department (ED).
The CUH is also asking people with chemotherapy treatment due in the next seven days to confirm their appointment.
The two affected CUH units are the Dunmanway Day Unit and the Haematology Unit.
The appeal is not limited to chemotherapy appointments but includes other treatments as well. Patients can contact 021-4922324 to confirm their appointment.
The CUH said in a statement on Thursday that the pressure on the ED has been “exacerbated” by the continued impact of the cyberattack.
It said that the ED is “exceptionally busy” and some patients are “regrettably experiencing long delays”.
This afternoon CUH has repeated the appeal for members of the public to contact their GP in the first instance and explore other options available to them before attending ED.
In a statement, the hospital said patient care is paramount for the CUH and thanked their staff for their efforts at this challenging time.
Professor Conor Deasy, Emergency Medicine Consultant at CUH, asked people to consider other care options such as their GP, pharmacists or local injury units before presenting at the Emergency Department where long delays are unfortunately inevitable.
“Patient care is paramount at CUH and this situation is being treated as a priority by Hospital Management who have taken steps to address this issue,” the statement added.
“Hospital management expressed their appreciation for co-operation of the public at this challenging time for patients and staff."
The HSE said that scheduled care at the hospital has continued at 60% to 70% capacity “with a focus on time critical cases”.
“However, where there is a requirement to have recent laboratory, pathology and radiology imaging, these cases have been deferred.”
A briefing on Thursday showed how cancer care was severely affected at the CUH and that it is still relying on paper records.
The HSE was hit by a ransomware attack last month which caused severe damage to the health services IT systems.
It said that health care services continue to be “serenely impacted” due to the cyberattack.
“Significant delays are present across all healthcare services,” the HSE said, adding:
“Patient and service user fear and frustration related to uncertainty and delays is increasing as the incident progresses”.
In slides shown at a HSE briefing, the service highlighted how the CUH was still being affected 21 days later.
It said that cancer care at the hospital continues to be impacted with radiotherapy treatment having resumed but being limited.
No new radiotherapy treatment has commenced in the past three weeks, while capacity for treatment has decreased.
“Normal activity for CUH is 160 patients each week with radiotherapy,” the HSE said.
“Currently, capability does not allow for this and arrangements are now in place with private providers with 90 patents being treated this week.”
Oncology images haven’t been available for the past two weeks, while histopathology – the diagnosis and study of diseases of the tissues – is running at 35% to 45%.
The HSE revealed that cancer multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) are limited in their capabilities to treat cancer patients.
“Over the past 2-3 weeks, cancer multi-disciplinary team meetings have continued where radiology, laboratory, histopathology and cytology results were available.
“However, due to delays in processing and reporting essential radiology and laboratory, the MDTs are limited in their capabilities to treat cancer patients going forward.”
The HSE said that paper records had to be generated for all 260 patients who attended the hospital's emergency department on Wednesday, as the Patient Management System was not functioning.
The attack has also left the hospital facing continued delays.
“All patients history, laboratory tests and radiology was manually inputted, resulting in long delays.”
The HSE said that “one workstation was available in the ED for access to radiology imaging, resulting in delays”.
It added: Laboratories are functioning but remain paper-based, resulting in delays in decision-making. For example, if you attended ED in CUH yesterday with chest pain, your initial blood sample would have taken 10 hours.
“The normal turnaround for this test is 2 hours.”
Meanwhile, the decryption of HSE user devices is ongoing.
It said that 21% of devices have been decrypted so far while 114 servers are queued for decryption.
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