Tullamore hospital a blackspot says inmo

The Midland Regional Hospital at Tullamore is a “blackspot” with the country’s largest year on year increase in patients on trolleys in 2014, the head of the INMO has said.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) General Secretary Liam Doran said new figures revealed the numbers on trolleys in Tullamore had trebled from 1,156 in 2013 to 3,746 in 2014.

“Tullamore has suffered the greatest increase in overcrowding in the country in 2014,” he explained.

Staff at the hospital are expected to be balloted on industrial action in the coming week.

“The staff are broken, they are broken mentally, they are broken physically; nobody can sustain that kind of pressure,” Mr Doran said.

In 2006 the Midland Regional Hospital at Tullamore had a total of 64 people on trolleys, said Mr Doran. “That gives you a straightforward illustration of how bad Tullamore has gone and how much pressure it was under in 2014,” he remarked.

“Tullamore had the largest increase year on year in the number of patients on trolleys last year,” he said.

Meetings are expected in the Midlands next week to organise a ballot.  “They are meeting early next week to start a ballot as early as possible,” Mr Doran explained.

The INMO is “seeking a mandate up to and including the withdrawal of labour,” Mr Doran said. However, the first phase of proposed industrial action is likely to see the withdrawal of all administration and clerical work undertaken by nursing staff.

“Tullamore went from 1,156 to 3,746, more than a threefold increase,” Mr Doran said, adding, “Tullamore has become a blackspot.” Mr Doran said staff from the three Midland hospitals would be attending the INMO’s protest outside the Dáil next Wednesday.

He is calling for a restoration of community services, additional staff at hospitals and additional beds in order to tackle the crisis. Mr Doran expects the Government established Emergency Department Taskforce to meet to discuss the issue on Monday or Tuesday.

In a statement on Thursday, the HSE said: “The hospital has had an ongoing increase in medical activity in line with national trends over the last number of years stabilising in somewhat last year. There is also the specialities coming through the emergency department of Tullamore hospital that other similar sized hospitals may not have in the same numbers.”

The HSE admitted “the pressure on Emergency Departments seen in recent weeks is likely to continue in the weeks ahead as the seasonal surge in demand continues. The numbers of patients on trolleys is higher than the same time last year, and it is for this reason that Minister Varadkar recently convened and attended the Emergency Taskforce. This Taskforce brings together representatives from unions (including the INMO and IMO), clinicians and HSE representatives, in order to develop practical responses to the increasing challenges facing our publicly-funded hospitals.”

“As part of the plans in place to deal with the surge in demand in EDs at this time of year, all hospitals have invoked escalation plans which include the opening of additional overflow areas, curtailing non-emergency surgery, providing additional diagnostics and strengthening discharge planning. Hospitals are currently taking these steps, as required, so that patients who need to be admitted to hospital are admitted to a bed as soon as possible,” the HSE said.

As a an immediate result of the implementation of these plans, hospitals successfully reduced the numbers of patients waiting for admission by 30% - from 513 at the start of the week to 354 However, although the HSE anticipates the figures will continue to fluctuate, the collaborative arrangements now in place with the professional bodies and management are having an impact. We will continue with these measures, the HSE added.

They said “a total of €25m has been provided for delayed discharge patients in 2015. This is being used to provide home care packages and short stay beds for the greater Dublin area where the issue of delayed discharge is most pronounced.”

In addition, the HSE received an additional allocation of €3m in December to enable the release of an additional 300 Fair Deal approvals immediately. That money allowed for 109 patients to move to longterm care in recent weeks.
The HSE anticipates that the continued application of these monies will significantly contribute to the alleviation of the pressure in Emergency Departments.

“The HSE apologises to patients and their families for any distress caused by the delays experienced in EDs. Unfortunately, staff operating within a busy patient care environment such as Emergency Department’s are often dealing with occurrences that are stressful for both patients and their families,” the statement concluded.