This article is from page 3 of the 2007-08-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
JUST one of the 60 new hospital con- sultants announced last week are to be based at Ennis General Hospital.
The HSE announced that it was investing more than €10 million to create the 60 new posts in 24 hospi- tals that have emergency departments which are performing well.
While the Mid West Regional Hos- pital, Limerick, has been awarded the largest number of consultant posts nationally – eight in total, with four more consultant posts spread across the Mid Western Hospital Network,
just one of the consultants will be stationed in Ennis.
The new general medicine consult- ant will be part of the Mid Western Hospital Network “with a commit- ment to Ennis”.
The Ennis hospital whose 24 hour Accident and Emergency Depart- ment is currently under threat of downgrading to a part time nurse led service, Will also share an Emergen- cy Service Consultant with the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limer- ee
Three Emergency Medicine Con- sultants have been allocated to the
mid-west under the scheme, but all three will be shared between Limer- ick and the three hospitals, including Ennis, believed to lose their A and Es following the publication of the Mid West Hospital Review.
The Ennis hospital currently has a “0.3 A and E consultant”.
It also has three anaesthetists’ con- sultants, three surgical consultants and three physicians.
The hospital is also functioning with just one radiologist with one new post to be advertised according to the HSE.
The HSE said it expects a number
of improvements in the system as a result of the appointment of the doz- en consultants in the mid-west.
It outlined improvements such as on-floor clinical supervision and de- cision making, enhanced infection control and clinical liaison service.
It also pointed to rapid assessment of medical or surgical patients – re- sulting in earlier discharge of inpa- tients, significant improvements in relation to access to diagnostic pro- cedures and reductions in the “OPD new” to return ratios.
It is envisaged that the additional posts will increase the number of
senior decision makers who would be present in emergency departments as well as the length of time such cli- nicians will be available.
‘These posts will also help improve direct GP access to diagnostics and speed up the availability of diagnos- tic results,” according to the HSE.
“Each type of post has been de- cided on the basis of local needs and will enable the successful hospitals streamline further their internal processes to enable their emergency department operate at their best,” a HSE spokesperson said.