University Hospital Galway’s emergency department - which continues to hit the headlines due to overcrowding problems - will be put under the spotlight next month when a national A&E forum will be held in Galway to examine ways to improves its service.
Forum members will meet clinicians, nurses and general health practitioners at the west’s biggest hospital at the end of May to work out how best to tackle the problem.
Local councillor and member of the HSE West’s regional health forum Mary Hoade says experts will look at ways of changing “some patterns or practices” at the ED.
“They will examine admissions and discharges and look at ways of avoiding pressure points which are causing difficulty in A&E at present. John O’Brien, the national chairman of the forum, will come here, look at the problem and make recommendations. He is not coming with a heavy hand. He is allowing everyone to have their say. I hope by September/October we will have his recommendations.”
Cllr Hoade raised concerns about the emergency department at a meeting of the HSE West’s regional health forum in Limerick this week.
“I raised this issue three times recently. There were 47/48 people on trolleys in the department at the end of March. What if there was an epidemic or swine flu problems? Waterford and Limerick hospitals have higher numbers presenting at their A&Es but they work perfectly. Yet we have more problems in Galway.
“The forum has worked with Limerick hospital. It it a big thing for us that it is coming here. I hope later this year we will have its recommendations.”
Meanwhile a leading local nursing union official warned recently that the recruitment ban on frontline hospital staff, such as nurses and midwives, must be lifted and closed beds must be opened at UHG to resolve the ongoing problems at its emergency department.
Noreen Muldoon, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s industrial relations officer in the west, feared the “crisis situation” which occurred at the end of March when a large number of patients spent the night on trolleys could recur if action is not taken.
“Our members struggled to cope with a crisis situation whereby 51 patients spent the night lying on trolleys in and around the department. Forty patients, including five children, were cared for overnight in the actual emergency department with only two nursing staff available to care for them. Members were trying to provide care in an impossible situation which only allowed them to provide the bare necessities. This is totally inappropriate and unacceptable to our members. The other 11 were cared for in the medical assessment unit with nursing staff being brought in from home to provide care during the night.
“This situation of people being on trolleys is going to arise over and over again unless the recruitment ban is lifted and beds are opened. The hospital is constantly understaffed. It is not just people who have left, retired or gone on career break who are not replaced. People on long-term sick leave and maternity leave are not replaced either. This puts huge pressure on remaining staff who are trying to provide the same level of service.
