CANCELLED: Emergency Medicine: Hospital Bedding Crisis

Plase note that this event has been cancelled.

Panel discussion exploring a range of perspectives on the current hospital bed crisis in Ireland and determining solutions.

Abstract

The Health Service is in crisis. One of the most pertinent problems is access to hospital beds. The reasons for this are multi-factorial: under provision in terms of bed capacity an aging population, co-morbid complex disease, no appropriate stepdown facilities, increased demand for admission through Emergency Departments, Patients waiting for tests, limited access to outpatient appointments or investigations. This results in patient presenting as an emergency or with more advanced diseases. Some of these problems are solvable. The aim of this meeting is to have a structured debate with health experts including patient views to offer solutions.

Each of the speakers will offer their perspective on the current crisis via a 7min presentation and present a potential solution. Those potential solutions will be probed by the panel and audience to further the conversation on this issue.

The Panelists

Dr Anthony O'Connor graduated in medicine from University College Cork in 2004. He completed SHO training in Limerick before undertaking higher specialist training in Gastroenterology in Tallaght and St. James's Hospitals in Dublin. He was awarded an MD by Trinity College Dublin in 2012 for a thesis on the management of Helicobacter pylori infection and gastric intestinal metaplasia with regard to gastric cancer prevention.

Upon completion of his training in Ireland he worked as senior fellow in Crohn's and Colitis at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA before taking up an appointment as Consultant Gastroenterologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in June 2014 and returning to Ireland in 2016 to an appointment as Consultant Gastroenterologist at Tallaght Hospital. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and has given invited lectures and oral presentations at many national and international meetings. His interests are Inflammatory Bowel Diseases especially Post-operative prophylaxis of Crohn’s disease and Quality of Life for patients with IBD, the GI complications of cancer therapies, Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Bleeding, Helicobacter pylori infection and Gastric Cancer prevention.

Dr Colin Doherty is a consultant neurologist at St James’s hospital in Dublin and associate professor of epilepsy at Trinity College Dublin. He trained at UCD and completed subspecialty training and his research doctorate in neurology at Beaumont hospital. In 1998 he joined the neurology training programme at Harvard Medical School in Boston and was chief resident there in 2000. After residency he completed Fellowships in epilepsy and in cognitive neurology. He came back to Ireland in 2003. He has been a staff neurologist in St James’s since 2005. He is the director of the Dublin mid Leinster regional epilepsy service serving a population of 1 million. From 2010-2017 He led the National Epilepsy Care which turned the management of epilepsy into a largely nurse and technology led service. He has demonstrated repeatedly that intelligent pathways of care and easy access to expert advice reduce admissions for chronic diseases and has argued publicly for a reduction in bed capacity in the health system in favour of a 24/7 urgent and ambulatory care-based model.

Ms Jacqui Browne is a Thalidomide survivor and has over 30 years of experience as a disability equality activist and consultant. With a BA Degree in Economics and Politics from UCD and a Masters’ degree in Education from Trinity College Dublin she has many years of experience working at local, national, European and International levels. She is a former member of Commission on Status of People with Disabilities whose report A Strategy for Equality was a blueprint for disability rights in Ireland.

Jacqui is Chairperson of DESSA - the national Disability Equality Specialist Support Agency, a board member of Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Irish Thalidomide Association. Jacqui was recently appointed as a member of the Disability Advisory Committee to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission regarding the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. She is also actively involved as a patient advocate in IPPOSI - the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry and is a EUPATI Fellow - European Patient Advocacy Training Initiative.
The panel discussion will be facilitated by Dr. Brian Fitzgerald, Deputy CEO of Beacon Hospital.

This event is kindly sponsored by Beacon Hospital.

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