It’s hoped a vital consultation process with healthcare workers across the Midwest will provide the stepping stones towards a modern, high standard and effective service for the needs of all patients in the region.
Over the coming weeks, workers across the hospital system, as well as in nursing homes and primary care services will be asked for their views on what systems and processes are needed to futureproof healthcare across Clare, Limerick and Tipperary.
This project will be the first to be undertaken by Consultant Cardiologist Dr Terry Hennessey in his new role as HSE Mid West’s Regional Clinical Lead for Strategy and Development.
Over the coming four to six weeks, he’ll lead the consultation process which will gather insights on the design and delivery of local urgent and emergency care services in the region.
The process, which will look at capacity, functionality and the whole integration of the system will inform the submission that HSE Mid West REO Sandra Broderick will make to HIQA’s ongoing review of urgent and emergency care in the region.
Dr Hennessey says he’s witnessed many good developments over the past three decades, but acknowledges the pressures facing healthcare provision and what he’s described as a constant winter crisis in terms of beds and trolley numbers in the ED.
The Clare-based Consultant Cardiologist says they want to build into the system the capacity and processes needed to futureproof the system, so that healthcare provision is ahead of the possy, rather than continuing to play catch-up.
This week the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation recorded 512 admitted patients on trolleys or chairs in the ED or overflow areas of wards at University Hospital Limerick during morning rounds.
Over the same period, trolley numbers at Ennis Hospital and University Hospital Galway climbed to 67 and 418 respectively.
The Midwest Hospitals Campaign group says it’s been contacted by a number of people who attended the ED in Limerick in recent days, who became increasingly desperate at the number of people waiting to be seen.
Ennistymon-based Spokesperson Marie McMahon, whose husband died after waiting 36 hours on a trolley at UHL in 2018 is welcoming the current consultation process and the impending HIQA review of Midwest hospital services.
Speaking on Clare FM’s Morning Focus, Marie says people are now making a conscious decision to leave the ED at UHL and travel to Galway, further exacerbating trolley numbers there.
Listen to the full interview here
