The number of children under six being referred to hospitals has jumped sharply since the Government brought in free GP care for them last year.
This has added to increased delays in emergency departments.
The State’s biggest children’s hospital, Our Lady’s hospital in Crumlin, has seen its number of under-six patients rise by a fifth since the change was made.
Hospitals in Cork report even higher numbers.
The data supplied by Our Lady’s appears to confirm claims that the introduction of the under-sixes scheme is one factor driving high emergency department use this winter.
The majority of under-sixes seen by emergency departments are not admitted to hospital wards.
The number of patients being referred by GPs has increased, but the rise in referrals for under-sixes was twice that of older children, according to information shared with The Irish Times.
Cork’s under-sixes
In Cork, emergency medicine consultant Dr
Chris Luke
says there has been a substantial increase in attendances among young children since the scheme was introduced.
This is a result of increases of more than 60 per cent in young children attending local GP co-ops.
“If you invite people, they are going to come,” Dr Luke said. “Sadly, this is yet another example of a great idea which has imposed an enormous extra burden on the system.
“Doctors still have to treat the same number of sick, elderly patients without any extra resources.”
GP co-ops, which provide out-of-hours cover for surgeries in the evenings and at weekends, have seen sharp rises in attendance by under-sixes.
Most cases tend to be non-acute.
After-sixes
The trend has prompted doctors seeing a rise in working parents bringing their children in for treatment at late hours to refer to the Government’s scheme as the “after-sixes” (as in 6pm).
In D-Doc, which covers north Dublin, attendances among all age groups increased by 5 per cent from 2014 to last year, but attendances by under-sixes jumped by 23 per cent between August and December 2015.
October saw a 52 per cent increase on October 2014, according to D-Doc's clinical director, Dr Mel Bates.
A third of all patients seen on December 28th, when attendances were running at five times normal levels, were under-sixes, Dr Bates said.
“If this trend continues, and is replicated, as it appears to be, in the daytime service, it will likely affect the availability of all GP services,” he added.
