This article is from page 15 of the 2008-04-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
NURSES at Ennis General Hospi- tal, where an unprecedented spike in cases of Clostridium Difficile was detected in early 2007, have criti- cised hospital management for fail- ing to act on concerns expressed over a number of years regarding over- crowding and understaffing at the hospital.
An investigation was launched last October after a surge in the inci- dence of C diff was picked up during
routine laboratory surveillance. The matter was investigated by two sen- ior HSE doctors who published their findings on Thursday.
The report confirmed that 46 pa- tients were diagnosed with the po- tentially fatal bug during the first six months of 2007. Of those, 15 died within 30 days of being diagnosed while another six are now known to have died up to the end of 2007.
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has welcomed publication of the report but expressed disappoint-
ment that issues raised by frontline staff had not been communicated to the senior doctors who carried out the investigation.
INO industrial relations officer Mary Fogarty said, “Members of the Irish Nurses Organisation at Ennis General Hospital had, in the last number of years, consistently highlighted to hospital management many of the critical contributing factors which caused a high level of Clostridium Difficile at the hospital from January to May 2007.
On a regular basis, when meetings were held with management, nurses advised that putting extra beds in front of sinks was causing the spread of infection as hand washing by staff was prohibited; overcrowding on the two medical wards was leading to very high risk of cross infection between patients and that a chronic shortage of nursing staff on two medical wards was detrimental to patient care.”
Ms Fogarty added, “A report, un- dertaken by nurses at the hospital
and Leeds University in April 2007, identified the need for 26 additional nurses and health care assistants. The additional staff have not been appointed and the INO has referred this matter to the Labour Court for implementation.”
“We are disappointed that the con- cerns of nursing staff, which were raised consistently with local man- agement over the last 3 or 4 years, were not made available by hospital management to Dr Hynes and Dr Kelleher’, Mary Fogarty added.