MONAGHAN GENERAL: Patients' lives are being put at risk by complicated referral procedures at Monaghan General Hospital, according to a hospital action group. It has called on the North Eastern Health Board (NEHB) to put the hospital back on call.
Although the hospital is officially not on call, GPs have been arranging admissions with medical and surgical consultants at the hospital. However, the lengthy and complex referral procedure combined with the hospital's off-call status is a cause for concern, according to local campaigners and GPs.
The situation at Monaghan General Hospital was "ridiculous", said Independent TD for Cavan-Monaghan Paudge Connolly who is also a member of the Monaghan Hospital Development Committee.
"If somebody presents himself or herself to the hospital, they are treated there. However, if they or their GP calls an ambulance, they are brought to Drogheda, Cavan or Dublin," he explained. GPs can sometimes arrange for a patient to be admitted into the hospital after a lengthy and complicated referral procedure.
The situation, he said, was further confused by the fact that the NEHB sent a letter to GPs last month stating that referrals were welcome "at any hour to the hospital".
Local GP Dr Illona Duffy confirmed the complicated referral procedure process was a cause for concern. "We must first ring the hospital, track down the doctor and persuade him or her to take the patient, then ring ambulance control and tell them a doctor at the hospital has accepted the patient. They then ring the hospital to confirm the name of the patient. All this can take a minimum of 30 minutes before the ambulance is even dispatched and is causing huge losses of time," Dr Duffy said.
This is true not only of trying to get patients admitted for X-rays for suspected fractures but also acute cases with chest pains. When time was critical, this complicated procedure was putting patients' lives at risk, she said.
The Monaghan Development Committee said: "We want people, heart attack patients, accident victims and diabetic coma cases to be able to go straight to Monaghan General where they can be stabilised.
"If they require specific intervention, we have no problem if they have to go elsewhere for that. We want the security of having the hospital on call so people in danger can be stabilised. We all know that with heart attacks we are talking about a matter of minutes and with accidents, the golden hour," Mr Connolly said.
A NEHB spokesman confirmed that although the hospital has been off call since July 2002, some GPs have been arranging admissions with medical and surgical consultants at the hospital "where possible". The ambulance services were bringing trauma patients to Drogheda and other patients to Cavan, he said.
A steering group was due to report back at the end of May. No new date has been set for publication of its report, he noted.