THERE CONTINUES to be a serious risk to those attending the emergency department of Dublin’s Tallaght hospital, according to the independent patient safety watchdog.
The Health Information and Quality Authority said it had ongoing concerns in relation to the quality and safety of the care provided to patients requiring emergency admission to the hospital.
It also said it had previously sought assurances in relation to how the board and executive of the hospital were managing these risks.
The authority was commenting yesterday as it announced terms of reference for a statutory investigation into the running of the emergency department at Tallaght.
“Following a recent patient safety event, the authority continues not to be assured that the hospital is effectively managing the risks to patients requiring acute admission to the hospital and who receive initial care in the emergency department and believes that this poses a serious risk to these types of patients,” Hiqa said.
Details of this recent patient safety incident were outlined at an inquest last week into the death of Thomas Walsh (65), Elmcastle Park, Kilnamanagh, Tallaght, who died at the hospital on March 2nd while “in a virtual ward” – an area in a corridor – awaiting a bed.
The Dublin county coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty, after hearing the case, said Tallaght hospital sounded like a “very dangerous” place.
A consultant working in the hospital’s emergency department, Dr James Gray, told the inquest he and his colleagues had complained about the conditions to Hiqa, the Human Rights Commission, the Health Service Executive and the Medical Council, but overcrowding was still continuing.
The hospital claims it is funded to look after 350,000 people but in reality cares for 500,000, making it “the busiest hospital in the country”. It deals with about 74,000 emergency presentations a year.
The terms of reference for Hiqa’s investigation, the existence of which was announced on Saturday, indicate that the role of the Health Service Executive in supporting and monitoring the provision of safe services at the hospital will be looked at.
The investigation will also look at the role of the hospital’s board in managing risk in the emergency department and throughout a patient’s journey from initial assessment through admission to discharge.
It will also examine how those working in the emergency department managed risk themselves.
Specific patient cases, where the investigation team deems appropriate, will be looked at.
The names of those on the investigation team will be announced shortly.
Richie O’Reilly of the Tallaght Hospital Action group will meet Minister for Health James Reilly today and complain about the gross underfunding of the hospital from the time it opened in 1998.
Separately, a recommendation in the Hayes report published last year that a GP be placed on the hospital’s board has still not been acted upon.
The report examined how nearly 58,000 X-rays went unreported at the hospital between 2006 and 2009 and how 3,498 GP letters dating back to 2002 were not processed properly.