Ireland’s intensive care services are operating with less than half the consultants they need, according to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association.
The group has today called on the government to increase specialist staffing in ICUs and increase bed capacity to deliver the highest standards of care for the most critically ill patients.
There are five critical care beds in operation at Letterkenny University Hospital, according to the latest audit.
Four of those are open-plan beds and there is one bed in an Airborne Infection Isolation Room.
The IHCA says that Irish hospitals have less than half (43%) of the intensive care consultants needed. There are currently only 35 whole-time equivalent consultant posts rather than the 82 which are required.
They also say that Ireland falls below most other European countries for the provision of critical care beds. There are 249 ICU beds across the country.
Dr. Tom Ryan, Consultant in Intensive Care and Anaesthesia spoke out on the impact of under-resourced and understaffed ICUs: “There are so many knock-on effects of under-resourcing of our ICU services.
“During hospital surge periods, such as winter, there are often no ICU consultants or beds available for patients. Instead, critically ill patients are cared for in our Emergency Departments, or in theatre recovery areas while they await an ICU bed.
“The Government’s current approach is that consultants must “muddle through”. However, the mismatch between the resources and the actual clinical need means that IC services are inconsistent and do not reach the standards of excellence that patients deserve.”
