Lick of paint no solution to Outpatients Facility
Issued : Thursday 13 January, 2005
Areas : Kilkenny
Seán reacts angrily to lack of progress on Outpatients facility in St. Luke's Hospital
The only response of the Health Authorities to his calls for an upgrading of the Outpatients Unit in St. Luke’s Hospital, has been a Christmas lick of paint, according to Labour Councillor, Seán Ó hArgáin. There has been a flurry of political activity in the Hospital since he demanded action, according to Cllr. Ó hArgáin, but no funds had been delivered, despite the visit of Junior Minister Seán Power T.D., and a number of other senior Fianna Fáil politicians. He called on the Health Services Executive, and particularly the newly appointed Director of the National Hospitals Office, former Chief Executive of the South Eastern Health Board, Pat McLoughlin, to immediately deliver a decent outpatients and casualty facility to the 58,000 patients seen every year.
“The situation at St. Luke’s has, as I predicted in late October, been found to provide the model of best practice for the whole country in dealing with the Accident and Emergency crisis. The Comhairle Na n-Ospidéal report held St. Luke’s up as the model for dealing with admissions to A&E, and the Government has reacted by following the St. Luke’s model, by establishing Medical Assessment Units in some of the country’s leading hospitals. If ever proof was needed that smaller, rural hospitals can be ‘centres of excellence’, and that the Hanly Report is seriously misguided, then St. Luke’s is proving the case.
That said it is now time to recognise the hospital’s shortcomings, particularly in the area where most members of the public come to receive services. As I pointed out previously, a total of 39,000 patients are seen every year in the Outpatients department. They are still being seen in cubicles measuring seven feet by five. A paint job may improve the appearance of these spaces, but doesn’t make them any bigger, or give any more privacy or comfort to cancer patients presenting for their first consultation, pregnant women being seen by their specialists, or children visiting the clinic in the hospital. It is time for the hospital’s plans for a state of the art Outpatients facility to be funded. A sum of €3.5 million is very little to expect from Government for a top performing hospital with a proven track record of delivery.
The moving of outpatients would also free up the current space to allow far a decent sized A&E section. At present the unit consists of one room, with five curtained off cubicles, and doesn’t even have a dedicated resuscitation room.”
Mr. Ó hArgáin also called for immediate attention to be given to the lack of toilet facilities in the hospital’s day ward, which has no en-suite toilet, or even bed-pan washing facilities. He concluded by saying that Ministerial visits to St. Luke’s were only window dressing, if no action was taken to deliver decent facilities for patients and staff. He also questioned whether the abolition of the South Eastern Health Board on the first of January would worsen the situation. Important decisions affecting the health service will now be made in private, with no accountability or public scrutiny, he pointed out.
Cllr 
