Sir, – Gerry Buckley (Letters, November 29th) writes: "There is little doubt that the centralisation of acute services in University College Hospital Limerick (UCHL) has been an abject failure".
As a practising GP in the area since 1971, I totally agree.
In spite of Trojan work by my hospital colleagues, it has become increasingly difficult to manage the health needs of my patients when the only admitting hospital in the mid-west is gridlocked.
As an experienced teaching GP, it is becoming unsafe to practise medicine when access to hospital care is so severely curtailed.
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A complete review of the hospital admission process is required.
All medical specialties need consultant-delivered acute medical units protected from ED (emergency departments) overflow.
EDs should be for surgical accidents and emergencies and not gatekeepers of secondary hospital care. – Yours, etc,
Dr MICHAEL GRIFFIN,
Limerick.