IMPACT has warned management at Galway University Hospital (GUH) that patient safety will be at risk if physiotherapy and social work on the ground floor of the hospital are displaced to resolve overcrowding issues in the emergency department. Management proposals to introduce this as a short term measure were only made known to the union when it was reported in the media.
IMPACT official Padraig Mulligan said “Management are proposing to breach Health and Information Quality Authority (HIQA) standards by displacing services from a purpose built facility. The issue for the hospital is one of capacity, but it makes no sense to breach one set of HIQA standards in order to satisfy a different set of HIQA standards.”
Padraig said that around 40 staff in GUH’s physiotherapy unit treat a monthly average of 750 acute patients, 70 respiratory cases and 1,400 outpatients. He said that management has proposed the physiotherapists move into a smaller area currently used by social work, which he described as “inappropriate”.
Non-filling of posts
Separately, Padraig has written to hospital management at GUH to explain that the failure to fill some posts at the hospital has led to a situation where clerical staff are being forced to make clinical decisions about patients on waiting lists.
In his letter Padraig said “The most shocking element of this current crisis is the absolute failure of senior management and clinicians in particular to support our members in addressing the cancelling of appointments. Having cancelled these appointments at short notice our members are being put in the position of deciding on who gets the next available appointment and when. This is absolutely unacceptable to put any Clerical Officer in. How can Clerical Officers be put in a position of having to make clinical decisions in a Centre of Excellence?”
Padraig said that three clerical officers have been put in the position of informing some cancer patients that the service has no plan to recall them for appointments.
Padraig has also raised the issue at the joint union-management forum of the Saolta hospital group. He added “In the event that management continue to ignore our warnings about this issue, IMPACT will have no choice but to escalate the matter.”
