A&E to close at night/Protest Friday 24th

Conor Bourke · 20-06-2011 7:53pm

kilburn wrote: »

They were flying the redeployment in the mid west region kite today which is probably code for we are going to close the a&e in St Johns during the day and move those doctors to the regional

Yeah I reckon that's what's gonna happen. It makes more sense tbh.

Berty · 20-06-2011 7:57pm

They were discussing this on Live95fm today and a guy came on the phone suggesting that they forget all about the Regeneration programme and put the money into the Regional.

The text system and phones went bananas.

touts · 20-06-2011 9:29pm

Beer Baron wrote: »

This is a soft delivery of bad news is all.

We are being tested with this information so that when we are given a stealth tax of increased emergency department fees / day fees that we will just say "ah well, at least they didn't close the doors"

They have a duty of care. The EU will not allow them to close down a REGIONAL hospital of this magnitude for the entire night and "they" know it.

The EU dont give a ****e about little hospitals in Ireland. If you are waiting for the EU to save us you'll be like a man caught upstairs in a burning house watching your neighbours rush in to steal your TV.

the drifter · 20-06-2011 10:47pm

Beer Baron wrote: »

They were discussing this on Live95fm today and a guy came on the phone suggesting that they forget all about the Regeneration programme and put the money into the Regional.

The text system and phones went bananas.

or the money put aside to change the roxboro interchange...or one of multiple other pointless schemes thats ongoing..

whatdoicare · 20-06-2011 10:49pm

the drifter wrote: »

the roxboro interchange.

The what now?

Grizzly 45 · 20-06-2011 10:58pm

This will be really fun if there is ever a major disaster in the Midwest region.Like a plane crash in Shannon or a major industrial accident.

OR it is a plan to get the private hospitals around up and running too.Break a leg..Cash or credit card??? before treatment,ala the Canadian system,as they take as long as the Irish before a doc sees you,after you have paid as well!!:mad::mad:

Am amazed WTF no one suggests setting up a couple of "triage stations" around the Midwest.IOW you arrive at basically a field hospital,where a doctor decides on the situation,and divides you off into Will live ,needs attention ,but can be done here,and OH FK,get them medvaced to the whatever open hospital in ,proably Belfast the way things are going.:rolleyes:

BTW the "new wing" in the Regional is apprently a multistory car park!!:(:mad:

We live in Intresting times..:eek:

the drifter · 20-06-2011 11:00pm

whatdoicare wrote: »

The what now?

Sorry Roxborough! stupid phone

whatdoicare · 20-06-2011 11:57pm

the drifter wrote: »

Sorry Roxborough! stupid phone

haha I figured that one but what work is going on there? I live near there and didn't know it was pegged for useless funding?

445279.ie · 21-06-2011 12:10am

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

This will be really fun if there is ever a major disaster in the Midwest region.Like a plane crash in Shannon or a major industrial accident.

Good point. I wonder have they thought of that scenario

Sierra Oscar · 21-06-2011 12:27am

kilburn wrote: »

Ambulance actually goes to the nearest hospital with an a&e not where ambulance control says.

If the staffing levels in the A&E in the Regional go below a safe level then the unit will close, simple as. The ambulance can try going to the regional if it wants but the unit will be closed.

BravoMike · 21-06-2011 3:39am

It is a scary prospect to think that an A&E department that services Clare, North Tipp, Limerick city and county could be made a 12 hour service. Are the people in charge happy in the knowledge that they are putting many lives at risk? Another side to this is if the A&E department closes and ambulances are sent to Cork and Galway are there going to be other ambulances brought in to cover the 999 calls.
I suppose it’s a time to be proactive and send a letter or email to the following addresses, I'll be sending one and getting as many people to do the same.

Dr. James Reilly,
Minister for Health,
Department of Health,
Hawkins House,
Dublin 2

or

minister's_office@health.irlgov.ie

Amazotheamazing · 21-06-2011 4:40am

445279.ie wrote: »

Good point. I wonder have they thought of that scenario

A major disaster like that would lead to emergency plans being put in place and calling in off duty staff etc so it's not really comparable.

What is comparable is it's already too busy so it's absolute madness to close it. I'd be surprised if Cork or Galway are operating a such undercapacity that they could take extra numbers.

Conor Bourke · 21-06-2011 9:03am

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

A major disaster like that would lead to emergency plans being put in place and calling in off duty staff etc so it's not really comparable.

What is comparable is it's already too busy so it's absolute madness to close it. I'd be surprised if Cork or Galway are operating a such undercapacity that they could take extra numbers.

I can't speak for Cork as I'm not sure how they're fixed down there but Galway is at the pin of it's collar, frequently tops the INMO trolley count

zuroph · 21-06-2011 10:16am

I bet its not going to happen.

DundalkDuffman · 21-06-2011 10:34am

Kess73 wrote: »

So the A&E at John's gets closed, and the same happened in Clare with folk there being diverted to the Regional.

And now they want to close the Regional one at night as well?

So is it to become that whether you are from Kilrush, Foynes, Limerick city or Ennis, if you have something happen to you at night you have to make your way down to Cork and hope that you survive long enough to get there?

the drifter wrote: »

Can never happen with the catchment area of the regional A&E. paper talks....

Skintwin wrote: »

That is completely ridiculous. The emergency department in the regional is in demand most at night, especially since the closure of St. Johns. They are taking away a vitally needed service for two counties, and hoping that people survive long enough to get to Cork to be treated. This country has gine to the dogs.

TestTransmission wrote: »

I really can't imagine this happening,sounds like scaremongering.

I wouldn't be so quick to discount it, it is a carbon copy of what has happened in Louth. Dundalk A&E becomes a 12 hour minor injuries unit for a "Centre of Excellence" brand new A&E in Drogheda which now can't cope. Funny that, taking the load off Dundalk (population 35,000) and adding it to Drogheda (population 36,000) didn't work, no one saw that coming.

zuroph · 21-06-2011 10:36am

DundalkDuffman wrote: »

I wouldn't be so quick to discount it, it is a carbon copy of what has happened in Louth. Dundalk A&E becomes a 12 hour minor injuries unit for a "Centre of Excellence" brand new A&E in Drogheda which now can't cope. Funny that, taking the load off Dundalk (population 35,000) and adding it to Drogheda (population 36,000) didn't work, no one saw that coming.

Its a bit of a bigger area than dundalk and drogheda. Not very similar at all.

445279.ie · 21-06-2011 12:05pm

zuroph wrote: »

I bet its not going to happen.

I hope you're right.

But with what's gone on in this country in recent times, nothing would surprise me

kilburn · 21-06-2011 12:08pm

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

If the staffing levels in the A&E in the Regional go below a safe level then the unit will close, simple as. The ambulance can try going to the regional if it wants but the unit will be closed.

Staffing levels wont go below safe levels, you people are all scare mongering !

Ambulance point I mad is correct the ambulance will go to the nearest a&e department obviously one thats open.

Dr O"Reilly stated clearly last night that the major hospitals will be ok and that its the rural hospitals that will have the problem.

Dont be comparing Limerick Regional to Dundalk and Drogheda, they cater for what you said 76,000 ish while the Mid West regional caters for a catchement area of approx 300,000

Sierra Oscar · 21-06-2011 12:12pm

kilburn wrote: »

Staffing levels wont go below safe levels, you people are all scare mongering !

I don't believe the staffing levels in the regional will go below safe levels myself - but the fact is that there is a shortage of 400 junior doctors in the HSE and those posts are not likely to be filled in full any time soon.

Minister Reilly already indicated last night on the Frontline that the regional would not loose its 24 hour A&E service. However at the same time he admitted that there was a severe problem in the HSE and this was about to come to a head. He warned people to expect other services to be downgraded.

I would imagine that complete closure of the likes of Nenagh A&E is on the cards.

DundalkDuffman · 21-06-2011 12:56pm

zuroph wrote: »

Its a bit of a bigger area than dundalk and drogheda. Not very similar at all.

You can't see the similarity between closing an A&E for another one and then cut the services there?

kilburn · 21-06-2011 1:00pm

DundalkDuffman wrote: »

You can't see the similarity between closing an A&E for another one and then cut the services there?

No similarity here at all

zuroph · 21-06-2011 3:19pm

DundalkDuffman wrote: »

You can't see the similarity between closing an A&E for another one and then cut the services there?

as you said yourself, you had dundalk and drogheda, with a combined population of 70k, only 30 minutes away from each other, according to google maps.
Limerick and surrounding surburbs alone is estimated between 90-120k, and thats before the country areas around it such as Clare are added to what The Regional covers. Its also a much further distance from other facilities.
Its a much different facility and catchment area than Dundalk and Drogheda, which, in all honesty were too close together and had too low a population to facilitate having both 24 hours.

Kess73 · 21-06-2011 4:06pm

There is meant to be some kind of meeting on this evening about it with the Health Minister along with representatives from the HSE.

At least that is what was said on the radio anyway.

DundalkDuffman · 21-06-2011 5:44pm

zuroph wrote: »

as you said yourself, you had dundalk and drogheda, with a combined population of 70k, only 30 minutes away from each other, according to google maps.
Limerick and surrounding surburbs alone is estimated between 90-120k, and thats before the country areas around it such as Clare are added to what The Regional covers. Its also a much further distance from other facilities.
Its a much different facility and catchment area than Dundalk and Drogheda, which, in all honesty were too close together and had too low a population to facilitate having both 24 hours.

Those are the populations of the 2 towns, it encompasses North Dublin, Cavan Monaghan as well as Louth and Meath, hinterland is 300,000 for the catchment area. No one here thought that the new A&E in Drogheda could cope, however all were assured that it would easily manage. Dundalk is a 12 hour minor injury unit while Drogheda is a 24 hour facility. The only reason that I mentioned it was that the HSE can do pretty much whatever they like and anyone that thinks that common sense would prevail would be wrong as illustrated in Louth. No one wanted 2 full time A&Es which was unsustainable in practical terms, one fully functioning one would be nice however.

zuroph · 21-06-2011 5:47pm

one is all we have too. with a much bigger area to the next one.

crackcrack30 · 21-06-2011 7:03pm

kilburn wrote: »

Staffing levels wont go below safe levels, you people are all scare mongering !

Ambulance point I mad is correct the ambulance will go to the nearest a&e department obviously one thats open.

Ambulance destination is decided by the paramedics on board i.e nearest appropriate hospital which can treat the patients needs and can bypass hospitals as seen fit..........

dave 27 · 22-06-2011 11:30am

I was just listning to the stats on the radio, they are as follows;

Catchment area population of 362,000 (nenagh and ennis a+e closed putting more pressure on Limerick)

Second busiest hospital emergency department in the country!

Serves the third largest city in the country In the 2006 census Limerick had a population of just over 90,000 and 115,000 including the surrounding suburbs, thats how many people are immediately affected, not even looking at the rest of the region!

Limerick City only has one A+E department as St Johns was closed and now this region will cease to have a night time a+e.

surely it makes more sense to close smaller hospitals serving a smaller population then the second busiest in the country?

touts · 22-06-2011 11:49am

dave 27 wrote: »

I was just listning to the stats on the radio, they are as follows;

Catchment area population of 362,000 (nenagh and ennis a+e closed putting more pressure on Limerick)

Second busiest hospital emergency department in the country!

Serves the third largest city in the country In the 2006 census Limerick had a population of just over 90,000 and 115,000 including the surrounding suburbs, thats how many people are immediately affected, not even looking at the rest of the region!

Limerick City only has one A+E department as St Johns was closed and now this region will cease to have a night time a+e.

surely it makes more sense to close smaller hospitals serving a smaller population then the second busiest in the country?

You missed the most important one
Senior HSE decision making officials in catchment area: 0

resus · 22-06-2011 8:15pm

Afraid as it stands the MWRH ED as we know it IS changed from July 11th 20h00.

There simply are NOT enough Emergency Medicine staff to cover the night shift. And that is that. Now the hospital will probably stay open for medical and surgical admissions sent in via GPs, but there will not be specialists in Emergency Medicine about unless NCHDs agrees to redeploy. Other specialty teams are simply too busy to pick up the workload, they are overworked themselves.

The way the contract works, NOBODY can just say to an NCHD in St. Johns to just redeploy !! You can only do that with someone on contract !! Most NCHDs have NOT GOT their contract yet in Limerick, such is Medical Manpower's efficiency. If their job is simply taken away from them, so what ! They just go locum somewhere or join their colleagues in Australia.

"More Carrot Less Stick" is what the Minister said, like it or not that is what has to happen.

legendary.xix · 22-06-2011 8:17pm

mikemac wrote: »

It's not enough that Tipp North and Clare were stripped of their services and we now on rely on Limerick Regional but now that's been cut too.

The smaller hospitals are not expecting fantastic services for everthing but a basic A&E in a large geographical area surely makes sense.
They can be transferred to the Regional once stabilized

Madness and this makes it even worse

Agreed with all points made. It is madness.

A&E to close at night/Protest Friday 24th

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