Hospital still massively under-staffed

TWENTY one beds have never been opened in Kenmare Hospital due to staff shortages and despite three recruitment drives this year the HSE are still unable to get extra staff for the local community hospital.

The lack of community nursing beds in Kenmare comes as 33 people were left lying on trolleys this Tuesday at University Hospital Kerry .

The ongoing trolley crisis across the country has been exacerbated by the lack of beds in community nursing units like Kenmare.

Kenmare Hospital opened in 2013 with a 40-bed capacity. More than six years later and only 19 of the 40 beds are open.

Deputy Michael Healy Rae has criticised the delay and termed it a ‘ridiculous’ situation.

A spokesperson for Cork Kerry Community Healthcare said that increasing capacity is a ‘priority’.

“Every effort has been made to recruit the necessary staff, and we have run three recruitment campaigns in the last year alone. Additional beds cannot open until we recruit the necessary number of staff.”

MORE than six years after it opened, 21 beds are still lying idle in Kenmare Community Hospital, increasing pressure on hospital beds around the county.

The six-year delay in opening the vital beds has been deemed a ‘ridiculous’ situation by Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, who has hit out the HSE for their failure to open the second floor of the hospital.

“It is ridiculous beyond belief that these beds are not being utilised,” he said this week.

Deputy Healy-Rae has repeatedly raised the issue with the HSE, but he said he and other elected officials are being ‘fobbed off ’. It is a similar situation in Dingle Hospital, where eight beds remain closed.

The failure by the HSE to open more than 30 community hospital beds is putting pressure on other health facilities in the county, including University Hospital Kerry (UHK), where there were 33 people on trolleys on Monday.

Due to the lack of community hospital beds, many of the elderly are forced to remain in UHK instead of receiving care at their local community hospital, including at Kenmare Community Hospital.

Deputy Healy-Rae said he was ‘begging’ HSE officials to open the remainder of the beds at the hospital.

He said the lack of beds in Kenmare and Dingle was forcing families to bring loved ones to hospitals in Killarney and

Tralee instead of close to home.

Kenmare Community Hospital opened in June 2013 and cost €8m.

The HSE said this week that attempts have been made to open the beds at Kenmare Hospital, but this has not been possible as the HSE is unable to recruit the necessary staff.

In a statement, a Cork-Kerry Community Healthcare spokesperson said they have “unfortunately faced challenges in recruiting the extra nurses we need”.

“Increasing capacity at Kenmare Community Hospital remains a priority for us, and we continue to make intensive efforts to recruit.

“The most recent recruitment campaign was last month (September).. .Every effort has been made to recruit the necessary staff, and we have run three recruitment campaigns in the last year alone.

“Additional beds cannot open until we recruit the necessary number of staff,” the statement concluded.

Michael Healy Rae TD