Tipperary hospital in line for cash boost

South Tipperary General Hospital, is expected to be one of the hospitals to benefit from the "new era of further investment in the health service", Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald has said.

The hospital was the focus of a damning Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report, in which it was accused of putting patients at high risk because of overcrowding and unacceptable practices.

Independent Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath, who raised the issue during Dáil leaders’ questions, said the hospital “suffered the most because of the cuts in recent years”.

In March there was a 100 per cent increase in the number of patients on trolleys, up this year to 552, from 319 last year.

“We need to bear in mind constantly that these statistics represent an old person, a sick child or a person with disabilities who are on trolleys in unsuitable surroundings,” he said.

He sharply criticised the emergency department task force established to deal with the trolley crisis and said it had done nothing to alleviate the problem.

He said promises were made three years ago that step-down beds would be provided in Cashel but they were still lying idle, despite €20 million being spent.

Ms Fitzgerald said the report’s findings about the hospital were “extremely disturbing”, but she noted that improvements had been made when inspectors returned six weeks after the initial visit.

The Tánaiste said the Minister for Health accepted there were legitimate capacity issues in the hospitals, which had been experiencing high occupancy rates since January.

She said the Minister for Health “plans to focus on the issue of capital investment in hospitals that need infrastructural development and he now has the resources to begin to do that”.

A capital review will take place in the near future and the issues Mr McGrath raised about the hospital could be considered then.

Ms Fitzgerald added that it was a question of reinvestment and the need for further capital investment in hospitals.

“Thankfully, because of the changes in our economy, we are now in a position to do that and I am sure that South Tipperary General Hospital will be one of the hospitals that will benefit from the improved economic situation and the reinvestment in our health service,” including an extra €500 million allocated to health.

Mr McGrath said he hoped the investment would be made as the money was promised as part of the talks for the programme for government, because the hospital was old “and has done Trojan work”.

Nobody condoned or accepted bad practices and unclean places but he said there was no physical space and staff were at their wits’ end.

He said “it is not a problem with staff or management who are overworked and totally overstretched”.

But Ms Fitzgerald said there clearly were “management and accountability issues” that needed to be taken up at local level.

She said some of the risk issues raised were linked to infection prevention and hygiene, “with very poor cleansing of equipment around some patient areas and stained, dusty and rusty rubbish bins in some of the surgical wards and the paediatric ward was not clean”.

The Tánaiste added that “some of these issues can be dealt with via proper management and accountability from hospital groups”. She said there were overall improvements in the trolley situation but a lot of work remained. “There is clearly more investment in the area of general practitioners and investment in primary care and it is important that this continues.”

Improvements have been made “but the Minister has indicted that he intends to address the general issues the Deputy raises about infrastructure”, the Tánaiste added.