Decade-old plan is Government's bid to distract from A&E misery

(stock photo)

Eilish O'Regan

There is a terrifying sense of déjà vu in the latest piece of Government spin warning that substandard hospitals may be closed.

And it is difficult not to see it as a convenient and desperate attempt at distraction from the misery and gridlock that has left hundreds of patients suffering on A&E trolleys again during these bleakest of winter days.

The promise to introduce regulation of public and private hospitals was first made a decade ago by former health minister Mary Harney. The idea is that they will be inspected by the watchdog, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), and if they fail care and safety standards they will face sanction, with closure as the ultimate penalty.

It re-appeared again yesterday. It hasn't been drafted yet and that may take years, with 2021 as the latest date pencilled in for its introduction.

Every health minister in the last decade has milked this proposed regulation, making several announcements - usually in a bid to gain cover from the backlash coming on foot of some patient safety scandal.

Of course, they neglect to concede that closure is not an option. Where would they put the patients?

If regulation was introduced tomorrow, very few public hospitals would escape having at least one department closed. In some cases the shutters would have to come down completely.

Yesterday, there were 121 patients on trolleys across the country left waiting for a bed for more than nine hours, according to the HSE's own figures.

In University Hospital Limerick 61 patients were on trolleys, while in Waterford 37 were waiting for a bed.

What regulator would allow patients to face that level of risk?

Hiqa's own patient experience survey this week found that seven in 10 patients in May did not get a bed in the targeted six hours, and some waited two days. The watchdog points out the proven dangers to patients who face such delays.

Current Health Minister Simon Harris and his Government colleagues must take responsibility for the ongoing risks they are continuing to allow patients in public hospitals to encounter on a daily basis.

Repeated inspection reports have highlighted how lack of specialist staff and outdated conditions have contributed to the spread of superbugs.

These are lethal threats to vulnerable patients if they get into the bloodstream and are killing people.

There is also the failure to properly staff hospitals.

Some regional hospitals cannot get full-time consultants and are relying on locums who do not have the full specialist training.

Who is auditing their care?

The cruellest failing by the Government is the number of patients on hospital waiting lists, many of them in pain and in deteriorating health.

Mr Harris says he doubts if the figures of 684,940 reflect the true reality and wants Trinity College to find out a better way of counting patients.

But even if the number was halved, which would be a miracle, it would still be scandalous.

Of course regulation is always welcome.

There are still too many areas of the health service that are not independently checked by a watchdog for care standards, including private hospitals and clinics.

Regulation drives up standards and polices patient risk.

The plan has been used far too often as some form of defence every time a minister or a government is called on to account for the manner in which so many patients have been let down.

Patients see beyond the headlines at this stage.