This article is from page 16 of the 2008-04-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
THE former chairman of the Ennis General Hospital Development Com- mittee has produced a copy of a let- ter which he says he put in the health minister’s hands but which Mary Harney says she didn’t receive.
A spokeswoman for the health min- ister said last week that there was no question of the minister having et- ther received or ignored a letter from Mid-West Regional Hospital Con- sultant, Dr Terry Hennessy, warning about the dangers of an outbreak of C-diff back in April 2005.
But former chairman, Peadar Mc- Namara said he was part of a nine- person delegation which met Minis- ter Harney on that day.
“We read nine scripts to her and Dr Hennessy read his. All nine were presented to her in a folder, including Dr Hennessy’s letter. That folder was put in her hand.”
Mr McNamara said that he person- ally heard the contents of Dr Hen- nessy’s submission read to the min- ister “and it clearly warned about the dangers of cross-infection”’.
The letter made no specific refer- ence to a danger of cross-infection with the C-diff virus, but did sound alarms about overcrowding.
Dr Hennessy said in his submission that average occupancy figures in
the hospital in 2005 running at 120 per cent were “not just uncomfort- able and emotionally distressing for our patient population but it is also frankly unsafe from a medical and surgical point of view.
“Due to the serious overcrowding, there are safety issues with regards to cross-infection of patients and resuscitation of patients in confined spaces.”
Meanwhile, the HSE has lashed back at claims by Sinn Fein that dirty hospital laundry is being transported next to clean deliveries of sheets.
The party’s Limerick representa- tive, Maurice Quinlivan, said, “It has come to my attention that dirty laundry from nursing homes and hospitals is being transported around Limerick, Clare and Tipperary with the clean laundry, severely increas- ing the risk of contamination from infections such as MRSA.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the HSE said that clean linen is de- livered wrapped in heavy plastic and dirty linen is bagged and transported in metal cages.
‘This is normal practice here and in the UK but, in addition, in the mid- west there is a special sanitising unit in the truck, the only one of its kind in the country. The truck and laundry cages are disinfected daily and a log kept.”