AN email written by a doctor at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) to a senior consultant described how he and his colleagues were being asked to cut corners and comply with unsafe practices.
He said staff at the hospital were grossly overwhelmed, that they were using extremely dangerous practices, and that triage nurses were being inundated.
The email, published by the Sunday Independent, highlighted the situation on one night when 20 patients were left 16 hours without having blood taken, any monitoring of their vital signs, or being given essential medications or fluids.
The doctor explained how on another night they were left with more than a dozen patients in cases where they did not fully know how sick they were, and whether they needed to be prioritised the following day.
“We had no idea what was in the patient list, nor did we know what was missed over the course of the night due to nothing more than utterly dangerous administrative practices,” the doctor wrote.
“This thought follows me home and I can only hope that this mess has not led directly to the deterioration or death of a patient.
“I certainly didn’t get into this profession to have to knowingly cut corners and comply with unsafe practices just ‘to get the job done’,” he added.
The email was one of several items of correspondence sent to hospital management recent months.
These included a letter signed by nearly a dozen consultants in which they expressed their deep concern about patient safety and the inordinate pressure being put on junior doctors.
One doctor had written personally to say she and her colleagues “cannot continue to stand over such a dangerous system” for treating patients.
In a response, the hospital said they were “acutely aware” of the need for more doctors at UHL and said this had been raised directly with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
UL Hospitals Group chief operations officer, Noreen Spillane, said they appreciated the ongoing challenges at UHL with over 110 per cent occupancy, and increased attendances from people over 75 years of age.
“We have made every effort to alleviate this including progressing the capital development for a 96-bed block,” she added.
