‘New consultants won’t ease A&E crisis at UCHG’

Home

News

Local News

Written by Avril Horan

Wednesday, 29 August 2007

The creation of four new consultant posts for University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) won’t ease the A&E crisis at the hospital. That’s according to City Councillor John Mulholland who said the answer lies in creating more posts for nurses and junior doctors.

The four new consultant posts will be created at UCHG as part of a €10 million investment nationwide by the Health Service Executive. The consultants for Galway will specialise in the areas of respiratory medicine, gastroenterology, geriatric medicine and cardiology. UCHG has received the allocation as part of a scheme that rewards emergency departments which are performing well.

Figures released by the HSE show that in October 2006 no patients had to wait more than 24 hours in the A&E department at UCHG for 80 to 90 per cent of days. Between October 2006 and March 2007, no patients had to wait more than 24 hours (to be seen at A&E) for 90 per cent of days.

However, Cllr Mulholland has hit out at the wait, and said that waiting up to 24 hours in A&E is “unacceptable”.

“It’s ridiculous. I welcome the new consultants for UCHG, but it will not shorten the waiting times in A&E. We need more soldiers on the ground and fight the war that way. We need more nurses and junior doctors. Consultants work 9-5 and it is not the top brass who are going to shorten the waiting list. It is absolutely essential that we get people on the ground, otherwise we are failing the people of Galway.”

In a statement, the HSE said, “The additional posts will increase the number of senior decision makers who will be present in emergency departments as well as the length of time such clinicians will be available. These posts will also help improve direct GP access to diagnostics and speed up the availability of diagnostic results.”

Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe is also to get one new consultant post appointed to its histopathology department.

Comments (0) »