THREE HOSPITALS in Clare, Tipperary and Louth will today witness significant change with the transfer of some of their emergency and breast cancer services to larger centres.
Round-the-clock A&E services at Ennis and Nenagh General Hospitals will come to an end. Patients requiring emergency department care between 8pm and 8am will have to go to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.
The Health Service Executive agreed with unions over the weekend to open an extra 15 beds in the regional hospital in Limerick today to allow the changes proceed. It agreed to staff the additional beds during marathon talks with the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and trade union Siptu at the Labour Relations Commission. The talks began on Saturday and continued into early yesterday.
The concession will see the unions co-operate with the reconfiguration of hospital emergency services in the midwest.
From now on, the A&E units in Ennis and Nenagh will only be open from 8am to 8pm.
Mary Fogarty, INO industrial relations officer, said the extra beds would stay in place until a discharge lounge opened at the Limerick hospital. Commitments were also given that there would be no job losses in Ennis or Nenagh, she said.
A claim by staff for compensation arising out of loss of premium night shifts in both AEs has been referred to the Labour Court.
The HSE confirmed that, following protracted talks, agreement had been reached on outstanding issues. “New arrangements for the reconfiguration of the departments of emergency medicine in the midwest will now proceed as planned on the 6th April, 2009,” it said.
Breast cancer services at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, also transfer to Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital today.
A letter issued to GPs in the northeast last week by head of the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) Prof Tom Keane said that as and from today any patient with symptoms should be referred to Beaumont.
“As and from the week beginning 6th April, triple assessment clinics will operate in Beaumont, supported by the necessary consultant sessions and the transfer of appropriate staff, and the necessary diagnostic and clinical facilities,” the letter stated.
The transfer of these services to Beaumont was postponed late last year after the NCCP said the full range of radiology services would not be available in Beaumont by mid-November.
It is understood agreement has still not been reached for the transfer of the two breast radiologists from Drogheda to Beaumont, but the NCCP said yesterday it is satisfied all necessary resources “inclusive of radiology services” are now in place in Beaumont for the transfer to take place.
In another development, a GP in the northeast has expressed concern that Beaumont may be overwhelmed by breast cancer patients with the influx of patients from Drogheda, as it is also dealing with extra patients from Dublin’s Mater hospital while some of the Mater’s facilities are closed for refurbishment.
The NCCP said a significant programme of work is currently being carried out on a phased basis at the Mater.
“Clinical mammography facilities will be temporarily suspended for six weeks to allow for new equipment to be installed. Urgent patients will continue to be seen on the Mater campus, while non- urgent patients will be seen at alternative sites. This is a temporary measure and the NCCP is satisfied that all patients will be seen in a timely and appropriate manner,” it said.