STAFFING LEVELS in hospitals caring for people with cystic fibrosis need to be dramatically increased, according to a new report commissioned by the Health Service Executive.
The report, published yesterday, says more than 120 extra staff need to be appointed to seven specialist CF units over a three-year period, at a cost of about €10 million.
The report recommends that CF units at hospitals in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Beaumont and St Vincent’s in Dublin and Temple Street and Crumlin children’s hospitals be designated specialist centres for treatment of CF.
The report also identifies the need for more single rooms for CF patients to minimise the risk of cross-infection.
“The need for infrastructural development is evident in many CF centres, particularly to enable appropriate management of infection control in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. The development of adequate single room, en suite accommodation is a priority.”
The report comes from a working group set up by the HSE in 2005 following a damning report on existing services commissioned from Dr Ronnie Pollock by the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland. That report found patients were being treated in units with few if any isolation facilities.
The recommendations of the HSE review group, which were finalised last year, endorse many aspects of the Pollock report in identifying deficits in staffing levels and saying hospital accommodation “has not kept pace with the increase in the CF population”. There are more than 1,000 CF patients in the State and the World Health Organisation says Ireland has the highest known incidence of the condition.
The review group calls again, as reports going back to 2000 have done, for a neonatal screening service for CF to prevent delayed diagnosis of the condition. Screening is now expected to commence next year.
It calls for the establishment of a national CF reference laboratory and says CF patients should not have to access hospital services through hospital emergency departments.
It also says the clinical care of people with CF should be overseen by a specialist centre with sufficient patients to ensure provision of the range of services patients need. Apart from the seven specialist centres it says CF units at hospitals in Waterford and Drogheda could provide “shared care” for CF patients.
In addition the report notes that many CF patients and their families experience financial hardship because of the inconsistent interpretation of medical card allocation rules.
The HSE said yesterday it had been working to improve CF services while the report was being compiled. It said 50 extra people, including consultants, nurses and other staff, had been appointed to the CF services in 2006 and 2007 at a cost of €6.78 million.
While this falls short of the report’s recommendation, a HSE spokeswoman said it was continuing to implement the report. It said a new block with single rooms for CF patients at St Vincent’s hospital, the national referral centre for adult CF patients, would be ready by 2011.
Minister for Health Mary Harney welcomed the report as a blueprint for developing CF services and said that while progress had been made clearly there was “a long way” to go.
Cystic Fibrosis Association chief executive Philip Watt welcomed the report and the extra staffing.