Scores of patients at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital are suffering the cancellation of vital operations each week due to staff shortages and the knock-on effects of emergency department overcrowding.
On average, one of the hospital’s 11 theatres has remained closed each day since the new year, a spokeswoman confirmed. The closures are rotated across all specialities, with priority decided by the clinical needs of patients, she said.
In neurology alone, one of the two theatres available remained closed last Wednesday and Friday, and a further closure is scheduled for Wednesday.
In total, 17 daily closures of theatres have been scheduled over a 12-week period, staff rosters show.
Staff have expressed frustration at the pattern of rolling theatre closures, which were introduced six years ago to ration the beds and staff available.
“Things haven’t improved at all. The waste of equipment and manpower is unconscionable,” said one member, who declined to be named.
Waiting
Some of the patients affected have been waiting long periods for an operation for serious neurological and spinal issues. Waiting lists at Beaumont are already among the longest of any hospital in the State.
Almost 2,500 outpatients are waiting longer than 15 months for an appointment at Beaumont, and 713 are waiting for inpatient and day-case treatment, according to HSE figures published at the weekend. Some 365 emergency department patients spent more than 24 hours on a trolley waiting for admission there last February.
The spokeswoman for Beaumont said theatre closures, combined with recruitment and capacity challenges, have contributed to extended waiting times for non-urgent cases.
Kidney transplant unit
Minister of State for Health Finian McGrath, a local TD who has long been critical of long waiting lists at the hospital, opened a new national kidney transplant unit there on Monday.
Mr McGrath has said Beaumont needs another 100 beds to resolve overcrowding in its emergency department. Official figures last week showed there are more than 500,000 people on public waiting lists.
There were more than 407,000 people waiting for outpatient appointments, 74,000 waiting for inpatient treatment and 19,000 on the waiting list for gastrointestinal tests at the end of April, according to the latest monthly figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund. Almost 27,000 are on outpatient lists at Beaumont.
