Don't get sick after 12am in the MidWest

MickDundee · 19-06-2011 12:51PM #1

HEALTH CUTS: Limerick MidWestern Regional Hospital is facing serious curtailments to their A&E services. The Limerick facility will not be providing night A&E services from 11 July, according to the Sunday Business Post

http://www.thejournal.ie/the-9-at-9-sunday-34-158767-Jun2011/

Ennis General's A&E closed after 8pm
St. John's Hospital Limerick A&E closed after 6pm
Limerick MidWest Reg Hospital to be closed after midnight (from 11/7/11)

Not good :mad:

angelfire9 · 19-06-2011 02:10PM

Not going to happen
Midwestern Regional hospital in limerick serves too big of a catchment area not to have 24 hour A&E
To say nothing of treating people from accidents/incidents in Limerick city itself (feud related incidents)
It would be against best practice & the HSE is not going to want to get its ass sued
Where do they think the patients are going to travel to?
Kerry?
Galway?
Tullamore?

Nice bit of hysteria whipping by Sunday Business Post but I can't see this happening in a month of sunday's (if you'll pardon the pun)
Not practical, not safe and not even going to save that much money
A&E in LRH is busy 24/7 they would lose lots of €100 invoices by closing the unit at night
Besides which they are only after upgrading it!

Lady Chatterton · 19-06-2011 08:59PM

Àngel Fire, I really really hope you're right. Most people in Clare never dreamt that A&E services (after 8pm) would be removed from Ennis General Hospital either but they were despite all the meetings, protests and rallies. Doctors even warned that lives could/would be lost as a result of the decision but the HSE forged ahead. The HSE don't seem to understand the importance of the "Golden Hour". I live in East Clare so I'm lucky, I can be in Limerick in 15 - 20 minutes but my heart goes out to the people of West Clare, particularly, Cross, Carrigaholt and Loophead, it is a long journey for them into Limerick.

What is really worrying is to read about patients who have suffered heart attacks but their journey into Limerick was delayed because the ambulance personnel couldn't find a house or the ambulance had to travel from another part of the county. The sooner we get postal codes in this country the better, they might help the emergency services locate houses in rural areas quicker.

I must say that in my experience ambulance personnel are highly skilled and professional who do brilliant work under immense pressure. I believe that closure of A&E in Ennis has placed them under even greater pressure.

When the HSE removed A&E services from Ennis, they promised a "Centre of Excellence" in Limerick. I'm sure anyone who has had the misfortune to attend A&E in Limerick themselves or with a loved one will testify that while the nurses and doctors do a wonderful job the place is bursting at the seams and is more akin to a warzone than a hospital department. It is impossible for the Regional to deliver proper services to the people of Limerick City and County, Clare and North Tipp without a substantial increase in resources. I live in hope!

http://www.clarechampion.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6352:hse-apologises-to-kilnamona-family-for-ambulance-delay&catid=43:health&Itemid=60

CptSternn · 20-06-2011 11:34AM

MrsD007 wrote: »

I live in East Clare so I'm lucky, I can be in Limerick in 15 - 20 minutes but my heart goes out to the people of West Clare, particularly, Cross, Carrigaholt and Loophead, it is a long journey for them into Limerick.

Limerick? Starting in July they will have to travel to Cork if they are out of normal business hours. Some articles say midnight, but others say 8PM.

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ae-hours-slashed-in-new-funding-crisis-57017.html

dr.fuzzenstein · 20-06-2011 11:47AM

I'm sure there will be statistics bandied about, like last time, that "this is based on best international practice".
Yeah, right.
International practice means that there's motorways everywhere and hospitals have helicopters, something that conveniently gets ignored here.
I'd well believe it, because even now, if you have a stroke in Kilkee over the weekend and you absolutely MUST have treatment within 20 minutes, well, nice knowing you, when's the funeral?
The current practice IS killing patients, along with gems like a year long waiting list for scans for cancer.
I'd say government policy is not to waste expensive treatment on patients, just kill as many off as you can, problem solved, nice and cheap.
Manslaughter in my book, but as Scary Mary used to say "You can't spell slaughter without laughter!"
Am I being too optimistic here?

golfball37 · 21-06-2011 12:29PM

I really hope the people who voted the way they did in the GE can sleep at night. In fact I'm sure they can which is even worse.

A&E will be closing in Limerick at 8pm in a few weeks time yet we still allow Brian Cowan, Beverly Flynn et all live in their mansions and draw their 300k pesnions. What a country. If any of their relatives get sick they won't have to slum it in an overcrowded and sometimes shut system.

Whats worse FF will return a TD in Clare next time and possibly 2.

Lady Chatterton · 21-06-2011 12:37PM

golfball37 wrote: »

I really hope the people who voted the way they did in the GE can sleep at night. In fact I'm sure they can which is even worse.

A&E will be closing in Limerick at 8pm in a few weeks time yet we still allow Brian Cowan, Beverly Flynn et all live in their mansions and draw their 300k pesnions. What a country. If any of their relatives get sick they won't have to slum it in an overcrowded and sometimes shut system.

Whats worse FF will return a TD in Clare next time and possibly 2.

Brian Cowen and Beverley Flynn looked after their own people, Castlebar and Tullamore have excellent hospitals.

dr.fuzzenstein · 21-06-2011 12:55PM

MrsD007 wrote: »

Brian Cowen and Beverley Flynn looked after their own people, Castlebar and Tullamore have excellent hospitals.

Looks like we got a raw deal here, everywhere else people voted for their local parish pump they got something out of it, Clare had the hospital reduced to nothing, the airport lost half it's flights, the industrial estate in Shannon is a ghost-town, Ennis the same, we're doing something wrong here!
The way this should be done is, vote for politician a based on promises, no result? Fired!
Vote for politician b, c, d, e, f, g, etc... until you get the guy who'll actually uphold the will of the people.
As it stands, people will vote for X "because he's a great fella", silly really.
Politics should be about "Can he do the job? Yes? Great, we'll keep you for now. No? Next!"
FG will be in for a while till people will automatically vote for their FF "chums", it's nothing more than a reflex action, no brain activity involved here...

golfball37 · 21-06-2011 02:12PM

MrsD007 wrote: »

Brian Cowen and Beverley Flynn looked after their own people, Castlebar and Tullamore have excellent hospitals.

Completely missed my point. The country is in ruins I could have picked anyone from the ruling elite who will never have to endure what we will have to. Whats worse is that nobody cares

charlemont · 21-06-2011 02:16PM

golfball37 wrote: »

Completely missed my point. The country is in ruins I could have picked anyone from the ruling elite who will never have to endure what we will have to. Whats worse is that nobody cares

Well said, We should be out on the streets where the elite live.

Lady Chatterton · 21-06-2011 03:40PM

golfball37 wrote: »

Completely missed my point. The country is in ruins I could have picked anyone from the ruling elite who will never have to endure what we will have to. Whats worse is that nobody cares

I understand your point but many people living in Cowen and Flynn's constituency view them as heroes as the delivered locally. I detest the parish pump stuff but in reality people like to vote for people who will look after their own.

When Michael Noonan was Health Minister years ago he poured money into the regional hospital in Limerick at the cost of Ennis Gerneral. When John O'Donoghue was Minister for Sport, Kerry received the largest number of lotto grants and he decentralised a state body to Caherciveen. There are loads and loads of examples of Minister who went out of their way to look after their own little patch.

However, in Clare we haven't faired too well. When Brendan Daly was Minister for Forestry and Fisheries he gave us Kilrush Creek Marina and lotto grants and Sile De Valera, when she was Minister for Art and Culture she gave us Glor.

Apart from the by-passes I'm not sure what the last lot of FF's delivered.

Lady Chatterton · 21-06-2011 03:46PM

CptSternn wrote: »

Limerick? Starting in July they will have to travel to Cork if they are out of normal business hours. Some articles say midnight, but others say 8PM.

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ae-hours-slashed-in-new-funding-crisis-57017.html

What I can't understand is that Clare is part of HSE West and so it Galway. Why aren't Clare cases (from July) being sent to Galway instead of Cork?

invpat · 21-06-2011 03:53PM

The country can only come to a halt if the public service/civil service, semi states (ESB, CIE) go on strike.Not a hope of that happening because they have jobs for life and dont want to rock the boat.But folks this is going to get worse, more cutbacks coming 3 and half billion in the next budget,Enda says no income taxe rises and no social welfare cuts so where are they going to get 3 and half billion of savings.Household charge, water charges coming next year.People are sleepwalking through this at the moment but its going to get much much worse.There are no young peole left in our estate they have all emigrated.Greece will probably bring this whole EU project down then we are on our own and more austerity looms.If you are young get out while the going is good.The political elite and their families and supporters will always survive, unless there is revolution.Some hope !!!

CptSternn · 21-06-2011 04:47PM

MrsD007 wrote: »

What I can't understand is that Clare is part of HSE West and so it Galway. Why aren't Clare cases (from July) being sent to Galway instead of Cork?

The article is about Limerick so maybe in Clare we will be routed to Galway. Then again Mayo just had their hospital closed as well and I think they are routing all calls there after hours as well.

dr.fuzzenstein · 21-06-2011 06:35PM

Some change in law coming to avoid this crisis.
But as it stands, if you have a brain haemorrhage in Kilkee and need to be treated within 20 minutes, any other country: The Chopper is on it's way!
Here: We'll dispatch and ambulance, should be there in a few hours...
So you're done for either way.

poppyvalley · 22-06-2011 12:29AM

CptSternn wrote: »

Limerick? Starting in July they will have to travel to Cork if they are out of normal business hours. Some articles say midnight, but others say 8PM.

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ae-hours-slashed-in-new-funding-crisis-57017.html

That's true!:(

CiaranMT · 22-06-2011 10:53PM

Minister Reilly says otherwise:

Limerick Leader wrote:

A&E at Limerick Regional Hospital “will not close” says Minister

By Mike Dwane
Published on Wednesday 22 June 2011 09:28

HEALTH Minister James Reilly has given assurances to the city’s Fine Gael TDs that there will be no night-time closures of A&E at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital this summer.

Constituents of both Minister Michael Noonan and Deputy Kieran O’Donnell have been deeply concerned by reports a shortage in junior doctors could see the doors closed at the country’s second busiest emergency department at 8pm from July 11 - and that patients could be brought to Galway or Cork.

Deputy O’Donnell said he had sought a meeting with Minister Reilly on Tuesday “to bring clarity to the situation” and that the Minister was adamant “the integrity of the service will not be compromised”.

A spokesman for Michael Noonan said that, prior to his departure for an EU summit on Sunday, the Limerick TD had been given similar assurances by his Cabinet colleague.

“Michael is aware of the speculation relating to the A&E department at the Regional Hospital and the upset it has caused. Before his trip to Luxembourg he got assurances from James Reilly that there will be no evening closures and there is no threat to services in A&E at the hospital. Michael is very anxious that message gets out,” a spokesman for Minister Noonan said.

Don't get sick after 12am in the MidWest

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