Seven A&E depts unfit for purpose: Report
At least seven A&E departments nationwide are unfit for their purpose, a major health service study revealed today.
The Mater and Beaumont hospitals in Dublin, the Mercy Hospital in Cork, Wexford General Hospital, Cavan General Hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, and Letterkenny General Hospital have all been identified in a major study on A&E capacity.
The report, carried out by the Health Service Executive (HSE), found the majority of hospitals examined were running at 95% capacity.
But the health body said improvements are scheduled and has vowed to introduce a target waiting time of 12 hours for patients from October in all A&E departments, with plans to reduce that further to six hours.
The Emergency Department (ED) Task Force was established in March 2006 to come up with solutions to end A&E overcrowding.
“The work of the Task Force was key in crystallising the key factors that impede effective management of emergency patients both on an individual hospital basis and at a whole system level,” Task Force chief Angela Fitzgerald said.
“The interdisciplinary expertise of the Task Force Group enabled the issues in emergency departments to be examined and tackled in a more systematic and robust fashion.”
Health officials travelled to hospitals across the state to review the standard of facilities.
The report found the main problems in A&E services are bed shortages and a significant number of hospitals working close to 100% capacity.
Patients should not have to wait on trolleys, the report stated, and officials have recommended that nearly 2,500 more long-term care beds should be rolled out over the next year in a bid to ease pressure.
The HSE also commissioned a separate report which examined bed capacity.
PA Consulting Group (PA) and the Balance of Care Group (BOC) visited 37 hospitals nationwide and found that 13% of patients were admitted needlessly.
It also found 39% of patients could have been treated elsewhere.
“It is not the complex nature of the patient condition or the fact that the patient is old or lives alone, but the way local health systems are configured to treat and care for that patient that results in inappropriate occupancy of an acute bed.,” HSE official Dr Marie Laffoy said.
“A broad range of community and home-based care options are needed to ensure patients are placed in the most appropriate setting.”
Meanwhile Sinn Fein’s Health Spokesman Caoimhghin O Caolain said the A&E revelation was a direct result of the Government’s failure to invest in public healthcare.
“The Emergency Department Taskforce Report published today is an indictment of former Minister for Health Mary Harney and her privatisation agenda.
“Her failure to invest properly in public healthcare has led to the situation outlined today by this report in which it says at least seven of our Accident and Emergency Departments are unfit for their purpose,” he said.
