New unit will ease hospital Emergency Dept chaos

By Denise McNamara

A Surgical Assessment Unit is to be set up within the next month alongside the Medical Assessment Unit – which is to introduce direct GP admissions within weeks – to avoid a repeat of the chaos experienced by the Emergency Department last week that at its worst point saw over 50 patients forced onto trolleys while waiting for a bed.Galway University Hospitals issued an apology to patients who spent time on trolleys due to “an unprecedented number of patients in the Emergency Department” last Thursday.

University Hospital Galway (UHG) regularly has the highest number of patients on trolleys in the country according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s Trolley Watch, which monitors all Irish hospitals.

The crisis came to a head on Wednesday night when there were only two nurses on duty to care for forty patients, including five children. By Thursday morning, that number had gone up by 12 to 52. It had dropped to 21 by Friday and by yesterday (Monday) morning the numbers had further decreased to 13. According to a statement from the HSE, Galway hospitals have an escalation policy in place to support the A&E when it gets very busy.

This was implemented on Thursday and involved the transfer of patients to the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) and the deferral of all elective admissions. All consultants were also contacted to review their patients and to discharge patients where possible.

The MAU, which opened last year, contributes to early discharges from the A&E with on average 100 patients taken out of the department every week. The effect of the unit will be further improved when direct GP admissions are introduced to this unit from the middle of April, according to the spokeswoman from HSE West.

A Surgical Assessment Unit (SAU) is to be opened within the next month which will operate in the same way as the MAU where patients can be sent quickly from the A&E and which can accept direct referrals.

Read more in today's Connacht Sentinel