HOSPITALS IN Cork and Limerick have been rated the worst in the State under the latest league table published by the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick and Cork University Hospital were ranked the two worst-performing hospitals out of 29 hospitals evaluated in the Healthstat survey.
Both received a “red” ranking, meaning that the hospitals’ services are unsatisfactory and require urgent attention.
The top-performing hospitals in the State are Cavan General Hospital, St James’s Hospital, Dublin, Letterkenny General Hospital and St Vincent’s University Hospital. Twenty-three hospitals were marked “amber” for average performance, leaving room for improvement.
Senior officials from Impact and Siptu said yesterday that it came as no surprise that the Midwestern Regional Hospital in Limerick was ranked so low.
Over the past 18 months, the HSE has been centralising acute services in the Midwestern at Limerick by ending 24-hour emergency and acute surgical services at Ennis and Nenagh General Hospitals.
The HSE is due to centralise acute medicine and cardiology services from February.
Figures contained in the HSE Healthstat report for September show one in five patients had to wait between 12 and 24 hours to be admitted through the Midwestern’s AE unit – more than double the August figure.
The figures show that more than 25 per cent of patients had to wait between six and 12 hours – up from 19 per cent in August. The figures show 6 per cent of staff hours lost to absenteeism, while the the hospital’s budget was 11 per cent – or €12 million – over budget for the first nine months of the year.
Impact assistant general secretary Andy Pike said: “The Healthstat reports come as no surprise to the staff working in the service who have to deal with overcrowding and bed shortages day in day out . . .
“One has to ask for whose benefit was this reconfiguration carried out,” Mr Pike added.