A letter from surgeons at University Hospital Kerry warning GPs they will no longer accept non-urgent referrals due to the huge waiting lists is a “cry for help.”
The letter warns that the hospital is dealing with the worst waiting list in the country – with 2,200 patients waiting for surgery.
It is signed by four consultant surgeons at the hospital and warns that nursing and infrastructural shortages mean the hospital is unable to provide the service the people of Kerry deserve.
On The Hard Shoulder this evening Kerry GP Gary Stack said the letter was a “cry for help” from the surgeons.
“I know they are very concerned about the nursing situation there and the inability of the hospital to retain the nurses and the fact that many of their wards and surgical facilities are being taken over because of the increased demand for services,” he said.
'Snowed under'
He said Kerry’s health service has been “snowed under” due to the influx of staycation tourists over the summer as well as the ongoing need for COVID services.
He said the hospital received no extra funding to deal with the summer rush.
“I had one patient yesterday that really had to be seen,” he said.
“A child with significant surgical problems that had to be seen. I picked up the phone and asked the consultant to see them as a favour. That is what we are reduced to at the moment.”
Dr Stack said he also received a letter from the hospital lab on the same day warning that due to unprecedented technical issues they can’t provide certain blood results.
"They told us they can only send urgent and clinically relevant blood results and there is no plan in place as to when this might be back in operation,” he said.
Services
He said the situation in Kerry is part of a “longer-term plan to downgrade the service in the hospital by starving the hospital of funds.”
“I think this is a last-minute cry for help as the ship goes under,” he said.
“I think the position the surgeons find themselves in now is orchestrated with a view to closing services through the starvation of funds over a long period of time.
“Simply by not increasing the funds when they are needed and simply by not increasing the funding during the bust period, which in Kerry will be the summer months, will have this effect.”
Kerry
He claimed there are decision-makers who would prefer to focus on improving services in Cork while downgrading Kerry.
“Whether it is a conscious plan or unconscious or semi-conscious, I think that has been the plan for some time,” he said.
“It has been starved of funds for a long number of years – a lack of development - and I think it would suit them perfectly over the coming years to close the different services in the hospital and then say it is no longer viable, so we have to do everything out of Cork.”
Dr Stack said patients attending the A&E in Kerry now face at least a 24-hour wait if they need to get anything investigated.
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