*Dr Catherine Peters.
SENIOR MEDICS at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) have expressed confidence that their views will be taken on board for HIQA’s review into urgent and emergency care in the Mid-West.
Recommendation of the construction of a new model four hospital in Co Clare is the dream scenario that HIQA’s review could propose for the county however ongoing delays with its publication have been met with criticism.
When asked by The Clare Echo if the HIQA review could propose a model four hospital be built in Co Clare, regional executive officer with the HSE, Sandra Broderick stated, “We’re not clear on when the HIQA review is going to report, I understand it will be in September, I don’t know what it is going to recommend, we have put in a submission and there has been an awful lot of talk on the submission”.
On whether sites on the outskirts of Ennis such as Barefield with close proximity to the motorway network were feasible options, Dr Catherine Peters, regional clinical director at HSE Mid West said, “We’re awaiting the outcome of the HIQA review, we’ve made our views very clear to HIQA, it will be them to give their advice to the Minister on that regard”.
Dr Peters continued, “We have confidence in the process, HIQA have taken on the views of the staff and people in the surrounding areas in relation to their feeling and local general practitioners, we will be hopeful they will take those views on board and progress in the manner which they feel is necessary”.
HIQA’s report will be presented to Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG) before UHL and HSE staff. Broderick outlined, “We are hopeful they will be published in either September or early October, in the meantime it is really important that we mention the 96 beds that are going to open up, I understand there is a lot of people very concerned about what that is going to mean in terms of winter preparation and pressures.
“It is really important that we get those beds open next month but the 96 beds are not a panacea, they are not going to get rid of every single trolley we have in Dooradoyle and we have the busiest emergency department in the country, we admit the most amount of patients of any model four hospital in the State so we need to continue with the investment and advocate for the investment, we also need to get parity with other regions in terms of the number of consultants we have per 100,000 of population but we also need the same amount of nurses, we very much want to see that the Government will push forward in terms of making sure the resources allocated to the six regions are done on a population age basis which means that the whole population’s need are understood from a financial perspective and how you devolve funding to those regions to make sure those needs are met”.
