A second TD in North Tipperary is highlighting the issues in providing acute hospital care in the Mid West especially at University Hospital Limerick(UHL).
Labour party TD Alan Kelly says the situation cannot continue adding that the public have lost confidence with the Government to deal with it. Similar concerns were expressed by Regional Independent TD Michael Lowry.
Deputy Kelly says some patients are refusing to go to UHL while there are an increasing number of worrying patient cases being reported at the hospital.
The Nenagh based TD is stressing that access via the Emergency Department department, bed capacity and access to consultants is not adequate for the population of the Mid West.
The TD says two new 96 bed blocks are welcome but cannot solve the capacity issue due to the fact that there is one Emergency Department for the region resulting in what he calls “constant patient pathway failures.” In addition staff are suffering from the stress of the current situation with constant overcrowding.
The TD wants a short and medium term plan and proposes that Nenagh hospital be upgraded to a level 3 hospital with an Emergency Department, an Intensive Care Unit and a fully functioning Medical Assessment Unit. Deputy Kelly says the situation must change after years of failure due to the reconfiguration of services implemented in 2009 and several reports examining the current problems caused by overcrowding.
