Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is another factor relating to the integration of primary and secondary care and greater communication between primary and secondary care. Many patients would not end up in hospital if their problem could be solved through day case or ambulatory care services as opposed to being brought in to be investigated. They should be investigated with a view to not being admitted. If there was early access to diagnostics and a specialist opinion, many admissions would be avoided.

Model 2 hospitals are not being used to their maximum capacity. There are three model 2 hospitals in the mid-west, but they are not being given the resources to fulfil their potential. They have great difficulty in recruiting staff and in securing 24-7 diagnostics, but that would allow patients to be looked after in those hospitals as opposed to going to the tertiary centre, which is the general hospital in the area. There are ambulance bypass protocols. If a person falls on the street in the mid-west, he goes to Limerick. There is no question of him going to a model 2 hospital. Those model 2 hospitals could be used as triage centres. For example, if a person is suspected of breaking a hip in the mid-west, he will not be X-rayed in a model 2 hospital. He must go to the regional hospital to be X-rayed. He may or may not have a fractured hip but he is now lying on a trolley for a number of hours or days waiting for a diagnosis that could have been delivered in a model 2 hospital. These hospitals need to be given greater resources to maximise their potential.