‘Unfair' to label Galway hospital as worst in country, says HSE man

By SIOBHÃÂN HOLLIMAN GALWAY'S main public hospital is being unfairly tagged as the worst in the country, according to one of the top officials in charge of health services in the West region.[private] HSE West Regional Director of Operations John Hennessy says the HealthStat survey doesn't reflect the world class standards of healthcare in place at University Hospital Galway and said people need to be careful about labelling the hospital. The hospital has received two red markers for two consecutive months in the HSE's own performance assessment of public hospitals. It is battling a budget reduced by more than €100 million, tough staffing restrictions and increased patient activity. At a meeting of the Regional Health Forum this week, its Chairman Cllr Padraig Conneely said the hospital's performance was embarrassing and in his opinion it had fallen apart since the departure of former hospital manager Bridget Howley. Cllr Conneely attributed the crux of the problem to issues within the Accident and Emergency Department and questioned why there hasn't been any improvement. The ongoing delays for patients in A&E were also raised by Cllr Mary Hoade who questioned what impact the A&E Forum was having locally. John Hennessy said describing UHG as the worst performing hospital in the country was doing a great disservice to the staff who work there and provide a world class service. He assured members that a turnaround plan is in place to address issues highlighted in the HealthStat survery that will bring the hospital out of the red zone and into the amber zone and then the green zone. Mr Hennessy said the staff moratorium was having a serious impact and increasingly more clerical and administrative staff were being redeployed to frontline clinical service areas such as A&E and cancer clinics to help them keep going. Chris Keane from the Regional Director's office acknowledged the difficulties experienced in the A&E Department and said waiting times in January were very high with more than 200 patients waiting over 12 hours for a bed. She said the numbers in February and March were substantially reduced but accepted that it was still a problem for the hospital. The action plan for the hospital includes increasing weekend discharges for patients in conjunction with earlier ward rounds for consultants so as to avoid having patients sitting in beds unnecessarily. 20 per cent needn't be admitted John Hennessy said the hospital aims to reduce in-patient numbers by two per cent and to increase day-patient activity by three per cent. 'We aim to deliver assessment, diagnostic and treatment without the need for admission to hospital as much as possible,' he told the meeting. He pointed out that between 20 and 30 per cent of patients are currently being admitted when they could and should be treated on a day-case basis. He appealed to members to look at the number of patients being treated by the hospital as opposed to focusing on the number of beds open or closed. However Cllr Declan Bree said the HSE should stop squandering public money on funding treatment for public patients in private hospitals. 'We've been reducing the number of public beds in public hospitals and paying for private beds in private hospitals for treatment of public patients. We need to open up all the beds in our public hospitals and stop squandering funds on private hospitals,' he stated.[/private]