News

“The reported cancellation of children’s chemotherapy treatments at Crumlin Children’s Hospital is one of the more troubling effects of this Government’s failure to invest in adequate bed capacity across our acute public hospitals. This has left our hospitals, such as in Crumlin, unable to provide for both planned essential care, such as chemotherapy for cancer, and the annual predictable increase in patients’ requirements for hospital care due to illnesses such as respiratory conditions or flu.  

The IHCA, commenting on Oireachtas Health Committee meeting yesterday in relation to the unacceptable overcrowding in the University Hospital Limerick (UHL) Emergency Department, said Minister Harris is incorrect in saying that UHL doctors (Consultants), other than surgeons, are not travelling to smaller hospitals. On the contrary, the majority of consultants in UHL, not just surgeons, are working in other hospitals in addition to UHL. This includes St John’s, Ennis, Nenagh, Newcastle West and Thurles Hospitals. 

“We welcome the commitment from Minister Harris to further engagement with the IHCA and its consultant members to address the ongoing consultant recruitment crisis. The Government’s discrimination against consultants since October 2012 has resulted in one-in-five, or 500 permanent consultant posts, being unfilled in public hospitals across Ireland. This has exacerbated the delays in providing care to patients and led to record waiting lists. Consultants have been repeatedly calling on the Government, but to no avail, to provide us with the capacity to treat all public hospital patients in a timely manner without delays.

117,000 children nationally now waiting for hospital care.  Hospital consultants call for data on the number of children waiting to be published, separate from adult figures. IHCA President Dr. Donal O’Hanlon: “That over 15,000 children, equivalent to the entire population of Castlebar, are waiting for hospital care across the Saolta University Health Care Group’s acute public hospitals, is hugely worrying. “The fact that this information is not published on a regular basis does not make the agonising wait for children and their families any less real or less damaging for the children whose healthy development is on hold”. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has today (6 December 2019) called for “full transparency” on the numbers of children waiting to access treatment in the Saolta University Health Care Group’s public hospitals in Galway, Roscommon, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal.

117,000 children nationally now waiting for hospital care. Hospital consultants call for data on the number of children waiting to be published, separate from adult figures. IHCA President Dr. Donal O’Hanlon: “That over 6,600 children, equivalent to the entire population of Limerick’s Corbally, are waiting for hospital care across the University of Limerick Hospital Group’s acute public hospitals, is hugely worrying. “The fact that this information is not published on a regular basis does not make the agonising wait for children and their families any less real or less damaging for the children whose healthy development is on hold”. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has today (6 December 2019) called for “full transparency” on the numbers of children waiting to access treatment in the University of Limerick Hospital Group’s public hospitals.

“While the method, encouraging prompt discharge of patients at St James’s Hospital through incentives for individual hospital wards, was ill-judged, it does not take away from the underlying issue faced by the hospital professionals and all acute hospitals across the country. Namely, the severe shortage of acute hospital beds.

Below is the text of an opinion article which appered in The Echo newspaper in Cork on 29 November 2019

117,000 children nationally now waiting for hospital care

According IHCA President Dr. Donal O’Hanlon: