THE NEW Emergency Department, being built to alleviate the overcrowding which has dogged the existing unit in the University Hospital in Dooradoyle can not be brought in ahead of the 2016 schedule, according to the hospital’s new Chief Executive Officer.
Professor Colette Cowan told a public meeting of the Hospital Board this week that the new ED, which is being built on the site of the current hospital, cannot be rushed into service for reasons of existing patient safety.
One of the difficulties with progressing construction work, the CEO said, is the proximity of a high-dependency intensive care unit, which depends on a power supply to ensure life saving supporting facilities for patients in critical condition.
Finance has been ring-fenced for the project, but of necessity, building work must take account of the needs of the critically ill, Profesor Cowan said.
“I freely admit that the ED is small and not fit for purpose….we expect to have appointed a builder by February but it is taking a long time to commission a footprint for the new ED…we have to ensure there is no interruption to the (power) supply to the coronary and intensive care unit,” she told the meeting.
In the meantime, other measures to try to alleviated the ED crisis have been put in place, including securing 40 places for elderly patients in nursing homes in recent weeks, putting a cap of twenty on the number of patients waiting on trolleys in the ED by moving excess numbers on to wards and working closely with staff and community care services to see that patients are directed to the facilities or packages they need to get them home from hospital.
