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News Local News Fahey calls on health chief to provide funding for assessment units
News Local News Fahey calls on health chief to provide funding for assessment units | Fahey calls on health chief to provide funding for assessment units |
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| Written by Christina Hession | |
| Wednesday, 21 February 2007 | |
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The Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Frank Fahey, is calling on the HSE Chief, Brendan Drumm to ensure that the forthcoming health estimates include funding for urgently needed medical and surgical assessment units at University College Hospital Galway. Minister Fahey points out that the provision of these vital units would cut down on Accident and Emergency waiting times at UCHG, in addition to alleviating the chronic beds shortage there.
“Any proposal for UCHG in the estimates, which does not include funding for the provision of a medical and a surgical assessment unit there, simply does not recognise the major difficulties that exist in the hospital,” he stated. The Minister also highlighted the need for funding to provide an adequate day hospital facility at UCHG, which would significantly reduce overnight bed occupancy by patients who could be treated as day cases. He explained, “There are medical and surgical procedures taking place at the moment, including minor treatments, where patients are taking up beds for days on end. If we had a medical and surgical assessment unit and a proper day hospital, we could cut down on this inappropriate bed occupancy.” The development of medical assessment/admission units provide another avenue for entry to hospital care, particularly for those patients who have already been assessed by their GP, according to Minister Fahey. “The advantage of such units are that patients with urgent or semi urgent medical conditions receive timely assessment and start of treatment, trolleys are taken off corridors, there is better access for GPs and they help to alleviate the beds crisis,” he stated. Minister Fahey pointed to the successful example of St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny, which could be used as a model throughout the country. For 20 years, chronic overcrowding and trolleys on corridors was the norm. This problem has been eliminated since the development of a medical assessment unit along with a pre-discharge unit and out-of-hours GP service there two years ago. A surgical assessment unit at UCHG would enable patients with wounds that required suturing to be stitched up and sent home on the same day, Frank Fahey explained. A report on the pilot surgical assessment unit run at UCHG for six weeks in 2006, highlighted a significant reduction in admission times and length of stay. |
The development of medical assessment/admission units provide another avenue for entry to hospital care, particularly for those patients who have already been assessed by their GP. 
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