It’s claimed the Medical Assessment Unit in Nenagh General Hospital is not working to its potential due to staffing problems.
As a result the 35 GPs in North Tipp are having to send patients to the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick.
Deputy Jackie Cahill says he has been contacted by a number of local doctors in recent days who say the Nenagh facility should be able to get through 16 to 20 patients each day with a full complement of staff but is currently only seeing 6 to 8 patients per day
This compares to Ennis MAU, where upwards of 24 people are seen per day by the specialised team.
“This is an essential part of health infrastructure in the county. GPs are using it to try to take pressure off the A&E but obviously if the throughput isn’t going through it is going to put pressure back on an already crowded A&E.
“So it’s something we are extremely concerned about – we have Parliamentary Questions down to find exactly what throughput is going through there. And if the throughput is as low as what the GPs are saying to me, well if that’s due to staff shortages or whatever then it has to be rectified immediately.”
Deputy Cahill says there needs to be a worthwhile package available to staff to ensure the Nenagh unit is properly manned.
“There needs to be permanent contracts put in place. I’m told that could be the reason – that there’s only temporary contracts. I can’t verify that but hopefully we’ll get the answers from the Minister.
“There needs to be a permanent consultant with permanent back-up staff there that have a proper contract with the HSE and that it would be attractive to people in the HSE to take up long term appointments in the Medical Assessment Unit.”
