A Consultant in Emergency Medicine at UHL and Nenagh Hospital is warning that doctors have to prioritise patients in a life-threatening situation.
Dr Damien Ryan says that’s why management at the hospital which serves the people of North Tipperary are asking people to stay away this week
They are unable to cope with the massive numbers coming into the Emergency Department which is recently averaging 228 patients a day with a peak of 249 on Tuesday.
Dr Ryan says is means everyone but the most sick will face very long waits and should try consulting their GP or Shannondoc first.
”We have to prioritize our sickest patients as we would always do. The downside of that means that people with less severe injury or illness will have longer wait times for assessment and provision of care. So we were strongly urged people where they have more minor symptoms or injury to consider
attending their general practitioner first or one of the out of hours general practice services like Shannondoc. We have injury units in Nenagh and St. John’s hospitals, which are well set up to provide care for injury, such as sprains, fractures etc, to all comers over the age of five, and provide a very efficient and timely care in those settings.”
