Tullamore beds open to cope with orthopaedic waiting lists

A total of 12 beds in the Orthopaedic ward and one operating theatre have re-opened in the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore for the summer months to support an Orthopaedic initiative, according to the HSE. There are now 1,400 people on a waiting list for Orthopaedic operations in Tullamore, while 700 more have been approved for surgery. The HSE is working with the National Treatment Purchase Fund on this summer initiative to cover the costs of a number of operations which will take place in the hospital. The backlog of patients waiting for treatment has increased since last summer, when the HSE took the decision to close a total of 32 beds and an operating suite to save money and remain under budget. "On a year on year basis demand for services reduce over the summer period when staff take annual leave entitlements and patients take summer holidays and are not inclined to attend appointments in this period," said a HSE statement yesterday (Thursday) regarding summer closures. "Outside this specific orthopaedic initiative there will be a reduction in elective services which is the norm for this period." However, INMO rep Lorraine Monaghan said that the hospital only intends to carry out up to 90 procedures/joint replacements over a six week period. "There is no sign of the other beds being reopened and they were only supposed to be summer closures... People are not going to stop getting sick or needing surgery. This is a cutting away of our basic health services," she said. Tullamore Cllr Tommy McKeigue said that the HSE have a lot of work to do make up for the cutbacks. "Our orthopaedic risk is higher now than it was five years ago... Orthopaedics is the most critical (ward in Tullamore) and it's costing more in painkillers and having people out of work on sick leave than it would to do the operations," said Cllr Tommy McKeigue, who was informed of the waiting list figures at last week's HSE Forum meeting in Naas. "The summer closures are getting longer for each hospital. There's no new services for any hospital (of the three Midland Regional hospitals)." There are also 25 vacant nursing posts within the hospital, which cannot be filled because of the public service recruitment embargo. "The HSE are just saying 'no, no, no' to everyone," added Cllr McKeigue. On the plus side, he said that the HSE recently received an allocation of €600,000 to increase the capacity of the Renal Dialysis Ward.