Fine Gael Tipperary North/South Offaly TD Noel Coonan said a recent Health Service Executive (HSE) league table has confirmed that the Government’s decision to strip A&E and acute services from Nenagh Hospital and transfer them to Limerick’s Mid-Western Regional Hospital was a disastrous move as the Limerick hospital is ranked one of the worst-performing hospitals in the country.
The local Fine Gael TD said: “Twenty nine hospitals were analysed in a HSE Healthstat survey which found Limerick’s Mid-Western and Cork University Hospital to be the two worst-performing hospitals. Results show one in five patients had to wait between 12 and 24 hours to be admitted through the A&E unit. This is more than a doubling on the August figure.
Meanwhile, the HSE monster continues to acclaim the reconfiguration process as a success saying services have been successfully transferred from Nenagh to Limerick. This can hardly be true when Limerick is bottom of the performance table and given a ‘red’ ranking meaning the hospitals’ services are not working to a satisfactory standard and require urgent attentio Calibri;”>
Fine Gael Tipperary North/South Offaly TD Noel Coonan said a recent Health Service Executive (HSE) league table has confirmed that the Government’s decision to strip A&E and acute services from Nenagh Hospital and transfer them to Limerick’s Mid-Western Regional Hospital was a disastrous move as the Limerick hospital is ranked one of the worst-performing hospitals in the country.
The local Fine Gael TD said: “Twenty nine hospitals were analysed in a HSE Healthstat survey which found Limerick’s Mid-Western and Cork University Hospital to be the two worst-performing hospitals. Results show one in five patients had to wait between 12 and 24 hours to be admitted through the A&E unit. This is more than a doubling on the August figure.
Meanwhile, the HSE monster continues to acclaim the reconfiguration process as a success saying services have been successfully transferred from Nenagh to Limerick. This can hardly be true when Limerick is bottom of the performance table and given a ‘red’ ranking meaning the hospitals’ services are not working to a satisfactory standard and require urgent attention.”
“This reconfiguration process has not worked to the benefit of patients. In contrast, it has been patient safety that has suffered as a result of gross over-crowding and under-staffing. I don’t understand how Fianna Fáil and Independent Deputies in North Tipperary still support a Government that has stripped Nenagh Hospital of vital services and transferred them to a overstretched location in Limerick which is ill-equipped for extra demands placed on it,” continued the Tipperary North/South Offaly TD.
A recent Irish Times article reinforced the Deputys’ beliefs saying both Impact and Siptu officials said it came as no surprise that the Mid-Western was ranked so low as staff working there have to deal with severe over-crowding and bed shortages on a daily basis.
Deputy Coonan said: “This Government has placed unfair and immense pressure on staff working in Limerick’s Mid-Western and once again it is frontline services that are hit due to inadequate and incompetent policies. This tired coalition tried to fool us into believing that Limerick was prepared for added demands placed on it but they never fooled us and just pushed ahead with the centralisation of services despite protest.
“We need an independent HIQA review of hospital reconfiguration in the interest of every patient from North Tipperary who has need to travel to Limerick to be treated. Patients deserve better than this and with the HSE due to centralise more services in 2011, I will be lobbying Minister Mary Harney on this issue as soon as the Dáil resumes,” concluded Deputy Coonan.
