The Health Minister has been accused of putting a positive spin on a desperate situation in the Midwest.
Stephen Donnelly visited the region’s main hospital yesterday to turn the sod on the new 96-bed block there.
He says a specialist team which has undertaken work at University Hospital Limerick has been a successful venture.
But health campaigners in Clare are hitting out that not enough is being done ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult winter.
Minister Stephen Donnelly broke ground on the 96 bed block at UHL yesterday, with the work expected to take two years to complete.
Preparatory work has already begun from senior staff in the UL Hospitals Group on proposing a second 96 bed block for the site, which the Minister has implied would have Government support.
The Minister’s visit follows a damning HIQA report on UHL’s emergency department, along with the recent Deloitte analysis and a specialist team undertaking work to attempt to ease overcrowding concerns.
Stephen Donnelly tasked that team to assist staff in Dooradoyle last April amid record trolley numbers, and he insists that it’s been a successful venture.
The Health Minister says the experts have had a ‘positive’ impact on the length of stay at UHL and that he intends to put the team into other hospitals across the country as a result.
Minister Donnelly says trolleys have been taken off wards under the new regime.
A Clare member of the HSE’s Regional Health Forum West has accused the Minister of putting a positive spin on the situation though.
Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show there were more than 70 patients on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick on two days this week.
On this day last year, there were 79.
Ennis Fine Gael Councillor Mary Howard says in her book, the figures have barely budged.
A spokesperson for the Midwest Hospitals Campaign has echoed those views.
Noeleen Moran believes the Minister’s visit further highlights a lack of political will to provide adequate care for the people of this region.
The campaign group has been calling for a model 3 hospital to be reinstated in Ennis, and Noeleen says despite pushback from the powers that be, they’re not giving up.
She insists that measures put in place in Mallow should be taken here too.
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