Connacht Tribune
Nurses chief calls for community care spend to free up beds
Chaos in Galway’s hospitals, manifesting itself in unsafe and chronic overcrowding of Emergency Departments – at UHG and Portiuncula – can be eased with more beds, more staff and increased investment in community care, according to Irish Midwives and Nurses Organisation (INMO).
Mary Leahy, First Vice President and Representative of INMO, warned the health system is “on the edge of a cliff” and needs dramatic action to stave off an even worse crisis in the coming years.
Ms Leahy, a public health nurse and former Galway City councillor, said the problems with the health system are “multifactorial” and there are “so many issues to address”.
“In the short-term, we need to invest in community and public health. The rhetoric of politicians is about care in the community and primary care but there isn’t matching investment in community care.
“We have 40 less public health nurses now than in 2008, and yet we have an increased population. The number of people applying for the HDip in public health nursing, has fallen year-on-year. We need 200 places at least every year,” she said.
“The Emergency Department is a capacity issue. In Ireland, we have only 2.8 beds per 1,000 people but the OECD average is 4.8 beds per 1,000. I’m not saying we necessarily need 4.8 but we definitely need more beds because population has increased, we are living longer, and birth rates are up. So, yes, we need investment in community care but we also need more beds in hospitals to cater for an increasing population.
“There is a certain percentage of admissions to ED that are unnecessary admissions. That is because GPs are under pressure and cannot cope. If you invest in more public health nurses, who are involved in preventative medicine, we can reduce the level of admissions and treat people in the community and in their homes, which is where they want to be. You cannot underestimate the value of home care and home help and yet they are the first packages that suffer when there are cutbacks,” added Ms Leahy.
She said retention and recruitment of nurses must be prioritised, after the moratorium on recruitment, emigration and retirements during the recession has robbed the system of thousands of experienced nurses.
“We lost seven ED nurses over a number of weeks to the private sector, so there is an issue with retention as well as recruitment. And it’s not just an issue with ED, nurses working right through the system are burnt-out. They’ve been asked to put the shoulder to the wheel for the last eight years and they have put two and three shoulders to the wheel but it is not sustainable. Nurses were happy to do that in a crisis but there is no sign of the crisis abating,” she said.
Ms Leahy added there was a need to focus on planning ahead.
“There is no forward planning in the health service. There is a need to sit down and devise a strategy for the next 10, 15, 20 and 30 years rather than focusing on the here and now. We need to get rid of annual budgets because you cannot forward-plan.
“There needs to be multi-annual budgets for ten years to allow planning . . . We are on the edge of a cliff in terms of the number of elderly people who are going to need care over the next 20 years, if we don’t do something dramatic to invest in home care and primary care.”
Galway East Dáil Deputy Anne Rabbitte said the overcrowding crisis has spiralled out of control, with a record 600-plus people waiting on hospital trolleys in Emergency Departments across the country one day last week.
“The situation is completely unacceptable and has been generating justifiable outrage and anger among hospital staff, patients and their families. Unfortunately, the scenes witnessed in hospitals this week are all too familiar to people who have attended the Emergency Department at University Hospital Galway in recent months. This week at UHG there were 40 patients on trolleys on the busiest day of the year so far, and there are regularly more than 30 people on trolleys in the UHG ED,” said the Fianna Fáil TD.
Galway/Roscommon Independent, Michael Fitzmaurice said the entire health system is in “meltdown”.
“It has gone way beyond political one-upmanship and point scoring at this stage. People are suffering and it is so unfair. I have dozens of constituents who are having operations cancelled at extremely short notice due to beds not being available on the day of their surgery.
“This is compounding the Emergency Department and trolley crisis. People who are in desperate need of procedures are being forced, and in some cases, being told off the record, to attend EDs because this is the only way they will get their procedure carried out in any sort of a reasonable time,” he said.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
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Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
