This article is from page 63 of the 2008-08-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 63 JPG
A TOTAL of 48 procedures were cancelled at Ennis General Hospital between January and June of this year.
There were no recorded cancella- tions at the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick during the same six-month period or in St John’s Hos- pital Limerick.
Neighbouring hospital, the Univer- sity College Hospital Galway also had a clear record.
Nenagh General Hospital, a hos- pital in the mid-west that shares a similar history to Ennis and many of the same fears regarding a possible downgrading, had 11 cancellations.
The largest cancellations have been in Cork University Hospital with a staggering 945 cancellations.
The Dublin hospitals also recorded a large number of cancellations with the Mater Hospital badly hit with 756 cancellations.
The figures were released by Fine Gael whose spokesperson has claimed that the 15,000 operations cancelled in 2007 could be exceed- ed.
Deputy Damien English (FG) said, “This worryingly high figure indi- cates that the 2007 figures will be re- peated or even exceeded. Cancelled operations have a real impact on patients, postponing important pro- cedures, prolonging pain and delay- ing investigations which may lead to early detection.”
In the first five months of this year, an average of 256 patients were on trolleys in A and E each day accord- ing to INO figures.