CITY TRIBUNE
100,000 appointments cancelled in Galway hospital over 18 months
More than 100,000 hospital appointments in the West’s main hospital were cancelled in the past 18 months, the HSE has confirmed.
New figures released to Aontú confirm 61,232 appointments were cancelled at University Hospital Galway last year.
And so far this year, up to the end of June, there were a total of 44,220 cancellations of appointments at UHG.
Aontú representative in Galway, Luke Silke, said cancer screening, diagnostics and cancer treatment should never have been paused or reduced during the pandemic.
“I believe people lost their lives as a result,” he said.
The hospital initiated 34% of all cancellations, around 36,000. Patients initiated the cancellation of almost 14,000 procedures, or 13% of the total.
More than half are in an ‘other’ category, where the cancellation has been for numerous reasons including because the patient has died while on the waiting list.
Other reasons include the appointment was brought forward and the appointment was moved to accommodate other cancellations.
“The capture of all reasons was not possible in real time during the recent cyberattack,” said Chris Kane, General Manager of UHG and Merlin Park.
“It is important to note that not all hospital-initiated cancellations should be viewed as negative . . . in 2020 almost 4,000 patients had appointments brought forward and 155 were discharged back to their GP,” added Chris Kane in response to Aontú leader, Peadar Tóibín.
Luke Silke said the cyberattack has had a considerable impact on cancellations, but he also blamed Covid-19 and Government curtailing hospital services during the pandemic.
“Many of the restrictions resulting from Covid-19 were well warranted to help curb the spread of the virus, but the Government was wrong to shut down our health service to the extent that it did. We all know someone who died with Covid-19, but we also all know someone battling cancer at the moment,” said Mr Silke.
“Cancer, no more than Covid, is a real threat to the lives and health of our population. Cancer screening, diagnostic services and treatment for cancer should never have been paused or reduced. Cancer services are essential,” he insisted.
The HSE’s winter plan has Government funding that will restore cancer services to 95% of pre-Covid capacity before the end of 2021.
“This is not good enough,” according to Mr Silke.
”Enormous backlogs have accumulated in the system, so capacity needs to be greater than it was pre-pandemic. The timeframe for restoration of services is also unacceptable. The first seven weeks of this year saw a 53% increase in GP referrals to Rapid Access clinics for cancer treatment,” he added.
“These figures suggest that capacity needs to be increased to 153% of the pre-Covid capacity. I understand people are fearful of the hospital setting, and are afraid of a fourth wave, but this fear must not prevent people from going to hospital.”
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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