Sir, - It is a relief to me and many others that Padraig O'Morain continues to write about the appalling staffing problems in the hospital services. Rodney Rice devoted several programmes on RTE to the issue in July, also. I can only hope their words carry more weight than mine did when I raised the issue repeatedly in Seanad Eireann over the past three years. All I ever got was the usual old guff and here we are now with an Irish medical journal headlining its editorial "Hospital Meltdown".
Concerned as I am about the inability of mothers in labour to be able to have epidural anaesthesia in St Luke's, Kilkenny, and other hospitals, the lack of key anaesthetic registrars and senior house officers seriously affects the proper running of Accident and Emergency departments. These doctors, because of their specialist training, are the most expert and efficient at resuscitating patients and establishing and maintaining airways - in other words, doing the first things which have to be done for the unconscious patient.
Lack of such doctors in many of our peripheral hospitals (and the medical newspapers still have advertisements for them saying they are urgently needed) can mean the difference between life and death to such patients. I suggested on June 30th in Seanad Eireann that A & E departments which do not have such doctors should close and resources be consolidated in neighbouring hospitals. This, of course, will not happen because of the political consequences for the local government TDs and senators when people see their local hospital A & E unit closed when the Tanaiste is saying the country is "awash with money".
These departments will stay open with the additional terrible stress on the doctors, nurses, secretaries, receptionists and other staff who will have to try to deal with whatever patients come in, knowing they have inadequate back-up.
The Department of Health's solution seems to be to surf the Internet - very modern - to try to find anyone, anywhere, who would come here. Let's get away from the immorality of enticing doctors from developing countries where they are needed even more and put an old fashioned question to those in the Department: Why can't we improve the conditions of hospital staff and keep our own doctors here?
Worse is on the way, too. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has said that from the end of 2001 it will not recognise as training posts those jobs in A & E Departments where there is no A & E consultant. There are just 16 such people in Ireland - but don't expect any action on this issue until December 2001! - Yours, etc.,
Senator Mary Henry MD, Seanad Eireann, Dublin 2.