Off-call threat by University Hospital Kerry doctors
Consultants at University Hospital Kerry have written to the South SouthWest Group warning they cannot continue to operate at current levels unless urgent action is taken to boost staffing and improve resources.
It is understood that doctors are considering going off-call, which could lead to patients being taken to Cork by ambulance if consultants are not available outside of normal working hours.
A meeting is due to take place today between the consultant board and Gerry O’Dwyer, CEO of the South South-West Group (SSWHG). A spokesperson for the group confirmed a meeting is due to take place but said it would be inappropriate to discuss internal issues in advance of any meeting with staff.
In a draft letter seen by the , the consultants warn that the hospital is under “significant threat” of a downgrade. It is without a full-time cardiologist or respiratory physician, which consultants say “falls below the standard of care expected by the Acute Medical Programme”.
They say respiratory and cardiovascular illness are major causes of morbidity and mortality in Ireland.
The previously reported that University Hospital Kerry’s (UHK) clinical director, Claire O’Brien, has temporarily stepped down from her post due to clinical pressures. A pathologist is also set to leave.
The consultants’ letter says the hospital is “unresourced and undersupported by the group”. This, they claim, has resulted in a large number of consultants leaving the hospital from many departments, including obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, cardiology, geriatrics, radiology, the emergency department, and pathology.
Against this backdrop, they say, it is “impossible to recruit consultants”, that “applicants will not apply for standalone positions in a hospital with so many deficiencies”. They also accuse the group of failing to plan for retirements, which they say are “generally predictable”.
While UHK is currently a Level 3 hospital, catering for acute medical and surgical patients, and providing a 24-hour emergency department service, doctors believe it is under threat of becoming a Level 2 facility, which would mean treating low-risk medical patients only and putting ambulance by-pass protocols in place.
Consultant radiologist Martin Schranz told the Irish Examiner he was recently reprimanded by HSE management for being critical of hospital managers in communications with colleagues.
Dr Schranz received an email from the HSE assistant national director of human resources on August 21 warning him he had been “put on notice in relation to your personal obligations that arise due to your organisational role in a situation where you have circulated emails where details reference senior managerial colleagues in an unacceptable manner”.
Dr Schranz said that while he had been critical of local management, he believed it was within a closed consultant forum. He said the HSE had not clarified what “put on notice” meant, but his union believed it to be an official warning.
In my opinion, it is aimed at producing a chilling effect on what I can say freely within this closed forum consultant group,” he said.
Dr Schranz has previously highlighted difficulties in his radiology department where he says he has no administration staff to register public patients, making it impossible for him to refer them on for scans.
He says private patients are being referred on. He said politicians such as Sinn Féin councillor Toireasa Ferris had continually lobbied on the hospital’s behalf, to no avail.
Another consultant, who spoke to the Irish Examiner on condition of anonymity, said morale at the hospital was “at an all-time low across all staff grades, but especially clinical grades” and that “recruitment is now becoming impossible at all levels”.
