Mater Misericordiae Hospital annual report 1994

Abstract

It is my pleasure on behalf of the Board of Management to present the Annual Report for the year ended 1994. Of necessity, the Report is wide-ranging. It encapsulates the Board of Management's aims day-to-day reality means that the demands on our Casualty Department often reaches intolerable proportions. Similarly, in an ideal world, admission to a hospital bed would be as quick and efficient as it needed to be. Inner city reality means that for people seeking admission, sometimes the only way to such a bed is through an already overstretched Casualty Department. We will continue to honour our commitments as an inner-city hospital. providing the best possible service on a twenty-four hour basis, while we will continue to "apply the bandages", we know that the "war" continues, and that a great deal else needs to be done at other levels, e.g. finding solutions for the problems of unemployment. family violence, drug abuse, etc. Meantime, we must also endeavour to protect and develop further the Mater's tertiary role and honour its responsibilities arising from its designated national and regional specialties as well as its obligations to its local catchment area. The problem of long stay patients and delayed discharges because of dearth of community-based facilities, make it incumbent on the Hospital to find solutions to its own internal problems. The provision of a sub-acute facility together with the establishment of a G.P. Practice adjacent to the hospital are among the possible solutions being considered by the Board of Management in its endeavours to offset the untenable difficulties of overcrowding and delays in admission which are encountered on an ongoing basis by patients and staff in our Casualty Department.