Hope of extended services at Nenagh Hospital
A SUGGESTION that the Medical Assessment and Injury Unit at Nenagh hospital be extended to a 24-hour service now looks like a real possibility following a meeting in Limerick on Friday last between the Mid-West Hospital Campaign group and the recently appointed new CEO of the Health Services Executive, Bernard Gloster.
In an interview following the meeting with group members on RTÉ Radio’s News at One Programme, Mr Gloster appeared to hold out real hope that the units at Nenagh, Ennis and Saint John’s Hospital in Limerick, which currently operate on a 12-hour basis, could have their opening times extended to 24 hours.
On the suggestion by the group that the opening times be extended to 24 hours, Mr Gloster said: “I think that is a very constructive suggestion and it is something that we will come back to them on.”
Last April the HSE announced that all of the Medical Assessment Units in the UL Hospitals Group would be open seven days a week, including in Nenagh, operating from 8am to 8pm.
This move was aimed at creating thousands of extra available slots for GPs to send patients for assessment rather than having them go through the very busy emergency department at University Hospital Limerick.
At the time the HSE said that the extended opening hours at the Medical Assessment Units to seven days a week would create an additional total of 7,176 patient slots per annum across the three hospitals, Nenagh, Ennis and Saint John’s, resulting in a significant enhancement in acute medical healthcare referral alternatives available to GPs over the weekends.
REAL OPPORTUNITY
Mr Gloster said it was a real welcome opportunity to meet with campaigners on Friday. “I see it as the commencement of an engagement with me rather than a once-off meeting.
“They has some very, I think, constructive observations about improvements that can been made and certainly improvements I am committed to on a number of access points in the health service, both in the community and in our hospital services.”
While Mr Gloster ruled out calls by campaigners to reopen emergency departments at Nenagh, Ennis and Saint John’s, he appeared not to close the door fully on such a move some time in the future.
“I think it is deeply important that we’re honest and upfront with people when we’re engaging with them and I did tell them that, at this point in time, there certainly weren’t active plans to restore emergency access in these smaller hospitals in the region, Nenagh and Ennis particularly.”
Mr Gloster added: “But there are a lot of other things we could do, and are doing, and given their [the group’s] suggestions this morning I think we are going to add to that.”
On the point made by campaigners that the emergency department in UHL, as the sole emergency facility in the Mid-West, was inadequate to deal with a population of 400,000, Mr Gloster said: “Well, what I said to them is that it certainly presents a serious challenge because where the emergency department came out of in 2009, it came out of a situation where a lot of other factors were built in at the time and were dependencies of that whole reconfiguration working. But some of those dependencies just didn’t happen and the reconfiguration, in some respects, went ahead of its time and we have seen the cumulative effect over the years on that.
“I have said certainly, I think, from the perspective of the HSE, of the Department and Government, no one would definitively rule anything out to come in to consideration in the future, but it’s important that we don’t leave people hanging with expectation either. Our focus right now is additional capacity at UHL,” said Mr Gloster, referring to two 96-bed blocks to be constructed at that site, one on which building has already started.