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Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Health
- Irish Examiner
Hiqa review of emergency services pushed out until September
It will be at least September before a Hiqa review of emergency services in Limerick, Clare, and north Tipperary will finish, leaving little time for action before winter illnesses hit. There was frustration locally when a May deadline came and went, but that has now been pushed out even further. It comes as 15 people waited longer than 24 hours on a trolley for a hospital bed at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) on Friday according to HSE data. The review will advise the health minister on whether a second emergency department (ED) is needed to support UHL. It is the only ED for more than 400,000 people. Hiqa, the healthcare regulator, said it is waiting for the ESRI to finish an analysis of emergency care demand up to 2030 by region. This will feed into Hiqa's advice for health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. However, a Hiqa spokesman said it does not expect this ESRI work to be completed 'until later in the summer'. As a result, he said: 'The revised timeline for completion of the Hiqa final report will therefore be September 2025, contingent on the completion of the ESRI reports within the expected timeframe.' This is sure to cause concern across the Midwest with 102 patients unable to find a bed at UHL on Friday, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. Another four people were on trolleys in Ennis hospital, which does not have an ED. The HSE counts trolleys and beds differently to the union. However, its chart shows 59 patients without a bed on Friday. When this review was announced in May last year, hopes were expressed locally that a rapid-build approach could see a new ED within two years. Social Democrats TD Pádraig Rice, Oireachtas health committee chairperson, has raised the delays with the health minister. She told him, in response to a parliamentary query, the revised timeline was shared with her on May 28. This review will provide advice to me, as minister for health, to inform decision-making around the design and delivery of urgent and emergency healthcare services in the Mid West. Ms Carroll MacNeill described the ESRI findings as 'critical' to the Hiqa review. She also pledged: 'The final report will be published". The review was commissioned in the wake of public outrage at tragedies in the overcrowded ED. These included the deaths of Aoife Johnston, aged 16, in December 2022, Martin Abbott, aged 65, in 2019, and Eve Cleary, aged 21, also in 2019. A new 96-bed block is expected to be 'fully operational by September 2025' the CEO for Mid West Acute and Older People Services Ian Carter told Independent Cllr Seamus Morris at the recent Regional Health Forum West. He said recruitment is on track with campaigns running locally and internationally. The ED also hosts a 24-hour crisis liaison service run by the Mid West Mental Health Services. Last year, it saw 2,525 patients, Cllr Joe Ryan was told at the same meeting. Despite frustrations, Hiqa said work on the review has 'progressed very well'. It has inspected UHL and its sister hospitals and held a public consultation which received 1,121 submissions. Hiqa is before the Oireachtas health committee on Wednesday. Read More Hiqa to be quizzed by PAC about its oversight of nursing homes
Irish Independent
12-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
No support staff for key CAMHS post in Sligo seen as reason why it hasn't been filled yet
'At this stage I am of the view that the HSE in Sligo-Leitrim have never been serious about providing such a service,' Cllr Declan Bree told a meeting of the Regional Health Forum West. 'At meetings of this Forum over the past year and a half I have been highlighting the urgent need for the HSE to provide a CAMHS-ID Service in Sligo. 'While the service is provided by the HSE in other parts of the country there has been absolutely no service for children and adolescents in Sligo or Leitrim because, we were told there was no Consultant Psychiatrist to assist in providing the service. 'At every meeting of the Forum I outlined the heartache and trauma parents and families have had to go through as a result of the failure of the HSE to provide a CAMHS-ID service in Sligo. 'I was extremely pleased when we were informed last November that an Agency Consultant Psychiatrist for the CAMHS-ID Service had been appointed and had commenced work on the 19th of November. 'While welcoming that appointment I did ask if an adequate multidisciplinary support team had been put in place to ensure that the new service could properly respond to those who were referred to the service for specialist input. 'However, it was only at our meeting in February when it came to light that the Consultant Psychiatrist had resigned his post that we also learned that there was no multidisciplinary support team in place. 'CAMHS-ID teams consist of multidisciplinary team members such a Consultant Psychiatrist, Senior Psychologist, clinical nurse specialists, social workers and administrators. They offer: Assessment, formulation, diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. 'However, on the basis of the reply I have received today we now know that none of these posts have ever been approved. We are also told that another Consultant Psychiatrist who applied for the position in the Camhs-ID Team in January this year withdrew his name in April. And of course what else would you expect, it there is no support team in place? 'Can you imagine hospital management appointing consultants, without having a support team of nurses, registrars, junior doctors in place. 'Yet the management of the HSE in Sligo-Leitrim have gone through the motions of advertising for a Consultant Psychiatrist for a CAMHS-ID Service without a multidisciplinary support team being in place. 'Surely, all the vacant posts in the team, including the post of Consultant Psychiatrist should have been approved and advertised when we were told that the service would be established in Sligo and Leitrim. 'The continuing failure of the HSE to provide a CAMHS-ID Service and to provide basic services for children with intellectual disability in Sligo and Leitrim is unacceptable and can only be described as a terrible indictment on the Management of the HSE,' said Cllr Bree. In response. Cllr Bree was informed the Integrated Health Area Manager for Sligo, Leitrim, South Donegal and West Cavan, J. Fitzmaurice that the national model for care for CAMHS-ID outlines the roles of MDT members trained in supporting children with intellectual disabilities and mental disorders. The team includes a consultant psychiatrist, health and social are professionals, medical and nursing staff ad administrative support. "While not all teams will start with full membership, the national CAMHS-ID programme aims to establish baseline teams in all areas including a consultant psychiatrist, senior psychologist, clinical nurse specialist and administrative support. "In relation to the Consultant position the PAS advertisement closed on January 31st 2025 with one application received. The post progressed to shortlisting which took place in April 2025. The candidate withdrew from the post at the end of April. We are in the process of getting the post re-advertised,' he said.
Irish Independent
28-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Frustrations in Galway at HSE's ‘disgraceful' delay in disposal of buildings on derelict hospital site
At a meeting of the Regional Health Forum West on Tuesday, May 27, Fine Gael's Cllr Alan Harney said the HSE has failed 'abysmally' in relation to these buildings. The councillor said it's 'absolutely disgraceful' that the HSE has been served a Derelict Sites notice for these buildings following multiple pleas for engagement with local authorities. Cllr Harney said we need to 'see action' and 'immediate works' under way, and not further delays. He also noted the opportunity to transform one of these buildings into a health centre which is needed for the local Ballinasloe community. After a recent fire on the hospital campus, Cllr Harney noted an increase in security around the Ballinasloe site's vicinity, which he did applaud the HSE for. A response to Cllr Harney's request for updated information on the disposal of the site was answered by Niall Colleary, the HSE's Assistant National Director for Capital and Estates. 'The HSE are aiming to have a sales agent selected before the end of June to manage the disposal process for St Brigid's,' he said. 'The campus is not in compliance with Section 58 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as the HSE has recently been served with a Derelict Sites notice. 'The HSE have engaged with the local authority in relation to this matter with a view to reaching agreement on a pragmatic approach to addressing the issues.' However, as Mr Colleary, or any other representative for Capital and Estates, wasn't in attendance at the meeting, Ann Cosgrove, the HSE's Integrated Healthcare Area Manager for Galway and Roscommon, assured Cllr Harney that the HSE is 'intent to move forward' with their strategy to destroy these properties. ADVERTISEMENT 'We need to keep it moving forward to get the best possible outcomes,' Ms Cosgrove said. Cllr Harney also expressed his annoyance at no representatives from Capital and Estates being in attendance at the meeting, saying he noted that there is 'no one here from estates which seems to be a common occurrence at these meetings'. Later in the meeting, following numerous questions directed at the HSE's Capital and Estates department, the Regional Health Forum West's Chairperson Cllr Ciaran Brogan asked if it is made a priority that a representative from that department be present at next month's meeting.
RTÉ News
02-05-2025
- Health
- RTÉ News
Donegal cancer campaigners hold 'positive' meeting with minister
Campaigners for improved cancer care services in Co Donegal have said they held "a positive meeting" with Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill in Letterkenny. Three protests calling for improved cancer care services were held at Letterkenny University Hospital in the last six weeks. Cancer survivor Roseena Doherty Toner, who was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in 2021, presented Minister MacNeill with 1,200 signatures she collected at two of the three protests in support of their campaign. The mother-of-five from Clonmany in Inishowen said that while hospital staff are "absolutely amazing", she believes LUH does not have the facilities needed to accommodate the area. "It was a positive meeting [with the minister]. We are going to have to wait and see now and hope for the best". "We in the northwest are 250 kilometres from University Hospital Galway. It is too far for a cancer patient to have to travel regarding any cancer treatment". Mrs Doherty Toner said a lot of services are available at LUH. However when the resources available cannot cope with demand, patients are sent to Galway. "The day I was diagnosed and sent to Galway for my treatment was the worst journey of my entire life. "Subsequent journeys were the same. You're not feeling well, you're sick, you're stopping at the side of the road to have to be sick. It's horrendous," she said. Mrs Doherty Toner said families that need to stay overnight must fork out several hundred euro for accommodation. "People in Donegal don't have that kind of money. We are not going to stop campaigning. We have fantastic staff and doctors in Letterkenny, but they're working in facilities that are not fit for purpose. We need upgraded facilities". Minister Carroll MacNeill thanked the campaigners for sharing their personal stories and said she understood the depth of feeling around the matter. "I really recognise that Donegal has experienced that at a deeper level to many other counties for lots of different reasons. It is important to acknowledge that". The Minister said the HSE and LUH management have plans to build on cancer and haematology services. Figures provided at a recent Regional Health Forum West meeting in February showed three in ten cancer patients start treatment within the target timelines at LUH. Minister Carroll MacNeill said the hospital has improved services so that people are getting chemotherapy treatment at an earlier stage.
