*Ennis Hospital.
ENNIS HOSPITAL will be without a CT scanner for the next three months.
Medical practitioners in Co Clare have expressed concern that tactics are evident to downgrade services at Ennis Hospital.
For the past nine years, Professor Tom Peirce has been a consultant physician at Ennis Hospital, prior to this he had been based at University Hospital Limerick for forty years.
Professor Peirce retired from his role as a consultant in the Ennis Medical Assessment Unit on Thursday last. He was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the UL Hospitals Group in February 2018.
Up to this point, the MAU was operated by a consultant physician and two registrars but this number is set to reduce.
A spokesperson for UL Hospitals Group told The Clare Echo, “A permanent Consultant Physician has been appointed and has taken up post in Ennis Hospital to replace Dr Peirce”.
According to hospital insiders, following on from Dr Peirce’s retirement there will be no designated consultant for the MAU despite the hire by UL Hospitals Group and instead of two registrars the MAU will now only have one.
In a further setback to Ennis Hospital, The Clare Echo has learned that it will be without a CT scanner for a period of three months from the end of August until November. This means that GPs in the county will not be able to refer patients to Ennis Hospital when they are in need of a head assessment.
Confirming that services would be impacted in Ennis, a spokesperson for UL Hospitals Group said, “The CT scanner in Ennis was manufactured in 2009 and is now approaching end of the supplier’s support period. We are pleased that under our equipment replacement programme, Ennis Hospital will soon take delivery of a more modern CT scanner, allowing for higher resolution and faster imaging.
“Enabling works to accommodate the installation of the new CT equipment are scheduled to commence on August 28th. Installation, commissioning, licensing and staff training will follow, with patient imaging scheduled to recommence in the first week in November. UHL and St John’s Hospital will support the CT service requirements in Ennis Hospital during the project. Where a CT is indicated in the context of an MAU referral, patients may instead be accommodated with an MAU appointment in St John’s, Nenagh or UHL. We apologise to patients who may be inconvenienced by having to travel for the duration of these works”.
Staff in Ennis Hospital are said to be very annoyed with the lack of a contingency plan from UL Hospitals Group management. Patients with signs of stroke or those with headaches and those that have fainted or passed out will be unable to get CT scans in Ennis as a result for the next three months.
A Clare based GP told The Clare Echo, “they are replacing the CT scanner and without it the service is practically useless for local GPs to refer patients to. Most cases that would have been dealt with there will now have to be referred to Limerick”.
Actions from management have “done a disservice to Ennis,” the GP claimed. “When people put pressure on to re-establish the A&E Department at Ennis, it appears that the HSE kick back by downgrading services to make it more unattractive”. Young doctors looking to progress their careers will not be looking to work in a level two hospital, the GP flagged on the difficulty of trying to entice staff to Ennis.
Such setbacks for Ennis Hospital come off the back of a visit by Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly (FF) in July where he committed to continued investment in the hospital. “This Government has been investing in this hospital and will continue to, there is 45 more staff here than when COVID arrived, we have sanctioned an extra 20 more staff to run the diagnostics”. He said the Government was determined to grow the workforce and services in Ennis.
