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Galway Advertiser 2006/2006_05_18/GA_1805_E1_004.pdf
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May 18 2006
Crisis in A & E `worse' than TV documentary revealed
BY MARY O'CONNOR A leading local nurses' representative has accused the Government of ignoring long-term appeals by nurses to sort out the country's A&E crisis and of only agreeing to take action in the wake of an RTE Primetime special on the problem. Helen Murphy, the SIPTU nursing representative at UCHG, says the programme did not reveal anything that hospital staff did not already know. "There was nothing new in it for us. We see it every day at UCHG. On a day-to-day basis the situation in Galway is often worse. I find it interesting that we have been shouting about the poor conditions and the poor delivery of services for patients for five years but were not believed until Primetime tells the nation. "Obviously it takes this programme for people in power to realise that something needs to be done about it." She says she would
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treat the Taoiseach's pledge in the Dail that he would leave no stone unturned in his efforts to rectify the casualty crisis with "scepticism". "There is an election coming up in a year's time and they [the Government] will try and do something about A&E but I'm not sure if it will be in the broader interest of the health service. "I would like to see the entire thing dealt with in a meaningful way as in an adequate number of beds being provided at UCHG and the Health Strategy of 2001 being reviewed [which calls for more money to be channelled into developing community services which would take the pressure off A&E]. I feel there is a big hullabaloo at the moment after the programme. While some things will be done in a general election year I fear the bigger picture may be neglected." Ms Murphy believes the country's A&E
problems are "only a symptom of the broader crisis in the health service". "A&E is the only gateway to hospital. What we need to look at are ways of keeping more people out of hospital by putting resources into community health services." Noreen Muldoon, the industrial relations officer with the Irish Nurses' Organisation in the west, believes the Primetime special heightened awareness about the problems in A&E. "The programme will help focus the mind really well on what needs to be done. All of the senior people in the State were later on Questions and Answers and Professor Drumm [the CEO of the HSE] was interviewed on a number of occasions the next day. It has come out what is needed - more beds and the implementation of the health strategy." She says the key to
solving the casualty problem lies in developing primary care. More services should be available in the community to ease the burden on A&E. "If diagnostic tests such as x-rays and scans were available through GPs, people could have them there rather than going into to hospital. Then, they could be referred to hospital when the tests are done." However, she stresses there is no "quick-fix" solution to the casualty problem. "We're very aware more beds are needed nationally. Thirty extra beds are to open at UCHG this summer. This will make a big difference and is very, very welcome. What is needed also are medical assessment and surgical asssessment units. These would take a lot of pressure off A&E." In a statement issued after the Primetime programme, the Health Service Executive said it deeply regrets the
discomfort and indignity that is sometimes suffered by patients in A&E departments. It said addressing these difficulties is a top priority. "We believe that no patient should have to wait unduly in A&E departments for hospital admission and that it is unacceptable for anybody to be waiting more than 24 hours. Our target is for no patient to be waiting longer than six hours and for all patients to be afforded privacy and dignity. "Most of our A&E departments are functioning well and do not experience admission difficulties thanks to the tremendous dedication of hospital staff. The peak experienced in numbers attending at some of our A&E departments across the country in the first three months of this year was unprecedented. The overall number was up 10 per cent on the same period last year."