UHL - our ‘hazardous’ hospital

Patient overcrowding in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) has now reached “hazardous” proportions and poses a serious threat to patient safety, Independent TD Michael Lowry has warned.

Mr Lowry's statement coincides with a call by local Labour Party TD Alan Kelly to build another hospital in Nenagh to treat the growing numbers of patients in the Mid West needing acute care in order to take the presssure off UHL.

Mr Lowry and Mr Kelly this week slammed services in the Emergency Department in UHL, with the Labour Party TD declaring: “The situation surrounding acute care in the Mid West is the worst I have ever seen. It simply can’t continue. The public have lost confidence with the Government to deal with it.”

Separately, Mr Lowry says he has been inundated with calls and emails from people across Tipperary whose anger and anxiety is palpable over “the serious threat” posed to loved ones admitted to the hospital.

“The number of calls and emails that I am receiving about UHL would have to be seen to be believed,” Mr Lowry told Health Minister Stephen Donnelly in the Dáil last Wednesday.

Referring to the “hazardous” situation in the Emergency Department of the hospital, he said: “The situation at A&E at University Hospital has crossed the line.”

He added: “Overcrowding has escalated from unsafe to hazardous. It poses a serious threat to patient health and safety.

“Even basic infection control is posing challenges. Distraught family members are tending to ill loved ones’ basic needs on corridors and in cubicles.” Mr Lowry stressed to the minister “in the strongest terms that anger and anxiety are palpable across Tipperary”.

The poll-topping Tipperary TD said the crisis was also overwhelming those working in the hospital and the stress of it all was making them ill.

“Staff members cannot cope with unending demands and stress levels. They are being tasked with the impossible. They are simply unable to keep up with the demand and are under enormous stress and strain. It is affecting their own health.”

Mr Lowry added: “I also have to say that the level of complaints that I am receiving from consultants within the hospital, from medical staff in general, including in the nursing profession, from ambulance services - everyone is extremely concerned.”

He said the overcrowding was forcing the movement of patients for UHL to Nenagh Hospital, leading to a knock-on impacts on patients in Nenagh.

The result was that a total of 400 day procedures in Nenagh have had to be cancelled in the local hospital  since the start of the year.

“There is not much point in moving patients to Nenagh and then sending out a notice to other people that their day care intervention has been cancelled, with no date given as to when it will happen.

“The huge volume of patients requiring medical care at UHL is having a growing knock-on effect on patient treatment at Nenagh Hospital.

“Day-care procedures in Nenagh are cancelled almost daily to provide beds to cater for the overflow of medical patients from UHL.”

Deputy Lowry warned that consultants were understandably concerned that further delays in the treatment of patients whose day procedures were cancelled in Nenagh will end up requiring acute intervention.

“Their condition is manageable at the present time and acute care is preventable, but it is important that they receive that necessary surgical intervention.”

There was a “massive problem” with capacity in UHL. The root of the problem went back to 2008 when investment was withdrawn or put on hold. “But we need to get a grip on it,” Deputy Lowry told the minister.

He acknowledged that there has been substantial investment in UHL, but added that people are frustrated that there had been “no significant difference in the activity in the hospital”.

Mr Lowry noted that management at UHL has been changed, saying that he hoped that the new structures and procedures would help to get a better flow of patients through the hospital.

The Tipperary TD, who generally supports the Government in the Dáil, concluded by requesting that Minister Donnelly move to reassure the people of the Mid-West that the situation at UHL is getting urgent attention from him and his official.

NO CONFIDENCE

Meanwhile, Mr Kelly says that with the record levels of overcrowding at UHL, “people in North Tipperary are now refusing point blank to go to UHL for optimal treatment as they don’t have confidence they’ll get it.”

The Labour Party TD added: “The increasing number of worrying patient cases being reported on from UHL is also heightening public concern.

“Many care treatments in UHL are best in class such as cancer care. But we have to face the facts once and for all that access through the emergency department, bed volumes and access to consultants simply are not at the level required for the population of the Mid-West.”

Deputy Kelly said the plans to open two 96 bed blocks at UHL are welcome. “But they won’t deal with the structural issues that exist around the acute system in the Mid West. The simple fact is that the population of the Mid West is too high for just one emergency department and the structures in place, where so much has to go through that department, means that there are constant patient pathway failures.”

One of the upshots of this was that elective surgery in other Mid- West hospitals like Nenagh were being cancelled, with hundreds of procedures being postponed in the last two months alone, Deputy Kelly said.

He added : “The community facilities and patient pathways in the MidWest also need to be strengthened in order to prevent people ending up in the emergency dept in UHL while GPs need to work with the pathways in place a well.

“Simply put, we need better community facilities, more home help hours and packages, greater access to more GPs and a range of other services but that won’t happen overnight.

“The staff working in the hospitals in Mid-West are really suffering from stress and exhaustion. They are trying to treat people on corridors and in cubicles, thereby trying to manage not just patients medical needs but also trying to preserve their dignity as well.

“It cannot continue. We need short term interventions and a plan to help with the current situation that manages patients flow better.

“We also need a medium-term vision for what will be in place in three to five years time. I and the Labour Party feel that we need a Level 3 hospital in the Mid-West that has an emergency department and that for geographical reasons should be based in Nenagh. This would be a hospital of similar status to Tullamore, Sligo or Kilkenny.”

Mr Kelly said UHL was a Level 4 hospital and the others in the the Mid West were Level 2 hospitals. “We need a Level 3 hospital which has an emergency department and an ICU as well as a fully functioning Medical Assment Unit. Obviously such a hospital will also need another bed block and theatres to help with patient numbers and flows.

“Ultimately, following the failure of reconfiguration, the failure of the Teamwork Report, the failure of the Hanly Report, the failure of the clinicians to deliver on what was promised when Nenagh and Ennis emergency departments were closed for a centre of excellence in UHL, it is now time to call stop and plan for the change that is needed to deal with the deeply worrying situation we have now and give people hope that we can resolve it.”