GP fears 'critical incident' in West Cork due to pressure on health service 

A Bantry-based GP has said she fears a ‘critical incident’ in the coming weeks after recent staffing issues at Bantry General Hospital forced some medical presentations to travel for an hour and a half to CUH.

It is understood the HSE is having difficulty in recruiting locum consultant general physicians to cover the temporary loss of one of the three existing consulting physicians at the hospital.

Management statement

In a statement to The Echo, hospital management said that staff vacancies at BGH have been advertised as they arise and that while it has been challenging to attract suitable personnel, “a number [of] job offers have been made with additional consultants resource secured and due to commence in September”.

“GPs in BGH catchment area have been advised of the current situation, and members of the public are advised to consider other care options before attending the Medical Assessment Unit at BGH,” management stated.

Fears on the ground 

Dr Laura Cullen, a GP based in Marino Medical Centre in Bantry, said there should be contingency plans in place and is fearful of the situation continuing for weeks.

“It is going to get worse,” she said. 

“Our big concern as GPs locally is that eventually it will lead to a critical incident. The reality of the situation when you are waiting three hours for an ambulance to transfer you to a major hospital makes this quite likely.”

Dr Cullen said this issue affects all of West Cork.

“It is a massive hit to the community,” she said. “Patients come from all over West Cork. We have patients coming from as far as Castletownbere who would be two hours at speed away from Cork City.

Lack of transport exacerbating issues

“We also have a lot of disadvantaged patients living in this region. They are vulnerable. They don’t have transport. We don’t have an adequate transport system. We also have a lot of elderly people who don’t drive and shouldn’t drive because of their medical issues. They are isolated and can’t get to Cork easily.”

Ms Cullen said this situation is “unprecedented” and “scary”.

“I’m from Dundrum in Dublin,” she said. 

“If you told the people of Dundrum that because of a failure to recruit they would be closing the doors in St Vincent’s, and if they are very worried about themselves they need to drive to Wexford, it sounds ridiculous. 

"It is scary.”

She said the situation is putting huge pressure on local medical practitioners and other areas of the health service.

“We would have patients staying at home who otherwise would be in hospital,” she said. “We are very worried about these patients and their potential clinical condition. 

"It also has a knock-on effect for the out-of-hours service, which is extremely strained. 

"There is also an increase in ambulance wait times because there is an increase in traffic to Cork transporting patients who would have otherwise gone to Bantry.”

Dr Cullen said the reality of the situation escalated in recent days when one of her patients had to wait three hours for an ambulance transfer to Cork City.

“Tuesday was concerningly busy in the practice,” she said. “One of my patients waited three hours for an ambulance to transfer them to Cork.

“It is not just the numbers, but the complexities of what we are dealing with.”