University Hospital Limerick staff ‘are past breaking point’ says consultant
A LIMERICK hospital consultant says without more beds in the region, “it wouldn't matter if you opened 10 emergency departments (EDs)”.
Colin Peirce, one of 87 consultants who took the unprecedented move of sending an open letter calling for change at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), admitted it’s “soul destroying coming to work and not being able to do what you’re trained to.”
He says he has done “very little operating this year” due to the fact many non-urgent surgeries have been cancelled due to the continued overcrowding in Dooradoyle. And, this week, figures have revealed that Limerick’s main hospital is once again the most crowded in the State.
The closure of the EDs at St John’s in the city centre, plus Nenagh and Ennis have been thrown into focus by a campaign which drew 11,000 people to a protest march on Limerick’s streets. Its key demand is the re-opening of these.
The colorectal and general surgeon said: “Without any more beds, it wouldn’t matter if you opened 10 new EDs. That’s the bottom line. We need more beds, more nurses and doctors and everything.”
He said new emergency facilities would not be adequately staffed, and “would not change anything on the ground in my humble opinion”.
“It's atrocious, and patients and their families are correctly calling in asking when we will sort out their mother and father. Until we address bed capacity, consultant numbers, junior doctor numbers, nursing numbers and allied healthcare professional numbers – all of which the Mid-West is the lowest per capita in the country – this problem is not going to go away,” he predicted.
Staff, he added, are “past breaking point”, and there is real scepticism in the health service that things will change.
“We talk today, we have 535 beds there. We are 14 years down the line and still 100 beds short. Come 2036 – another 13 years away – we are not too hopeful much is going to change,” he added.
Consultants, the surgeon said, share the public’s frustration, and reiterated calls elsewhere for an “ongoing campaign” against overcrowding.
“We need action. A lot of us are very proud Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary people ourselves. We want to deliver the best for our patients, many of whom are friends or friends of friends. I think it’s time we go on an ongoing campaign – not just something which raises its head and dies off every February or March,” Mr Peirce added.
He questioned whether this could mean people “knocking on politician’s doors because let’s be honest – what’s happened across the last decade has not had tremendous traction and very little has changed.”