Failure to send Health and Safety Inspectors to St. Luke’s A&E a disgrace- Ó hArgáin
Issued : Tuesday 8 March, 2005
Areas : Kilkenny
Seán calls for Health and Safety Inspectors to be sent to St. Luke's Hospital A&E Section
The announcement that St. Luke’s Hospital Accident and Emergency Unit is not on the list of eleven hospitals to be inspected by officials from the Health and Safety Authority, has been condemned by Kilkenny Labour Councillor, Seán Ó hArgáin. He visited the unit last Friday, immediately following the announcement, and called on the Minister for Health, Mary Harney T.D. to come and see at first hand the serious safety issues which exist in the converted laundry which serves 30,000 patients a year.
Among the problems he says need immediate attention are the fact that the only Emergency exit is currently covered with a curtain, and is part of a cubicle in which patients are treated. It then opens onto a totally inadequate stepped exit, which a wheelchair or stretcher would find impossible to negotiate.
The unit has no dedicated resuscitation area, and the area in which cardiac emergencies are now dealt with is also the entrance to the storage area for all staff, a tiny space that also doubles as the changing area and food area for the staff. The unit’s reception area is effectively in a public corridor, with sick patients and their relatives forced to give intimate details without any privacy.
The unit also lacks the most basic facility of a bed-pan washer, with staff currently forced to carry out this piece of basic hygiene in an open sink, which must also double as the area for cleaning medical utensils, in the absence of a sterilisation unit.
Speaking after his visit, Mr. Ó hArgáin said it defied logic that the Health and Safety Authority would not send an inspector to the unit.
“I have called for the hospital to immediately be given the €3.5 million funding for its badly-needed Outpatients facility. This would then allow the A&E unit to expand into the existing space and to be trebled in size. The current situation is not acceptable. Ironically, the hospital is being held up as a model of best practice, as a result of having introduced the Medical Assessment Unit, an example that is being followed by the major hospitals in Dublin. It seems that the hospital is being punished however, by the failure to fund a 21st. Century Outpatients and Accident and Emergency service. The criteria for sending the inspectors to hospitals are that they should have patients on trolleys. After that the Health Authorities don’t care about the actual safety and comfort of patients.
The staff in St. Luke’s are doing a tremendous job, but now need the political will to be there to deliver the services the people of the area need”
Cllr 
