Please don't send patients here, hospital department tells GPs

The dermatology department at a Limerick hospital has urged local GPs to refer patients elsewhere “in the interest of safety”.

LOCAL GPs IN Limerick have been asked by one hospital department to send patients elsewhere, as the facility is so under-staffed.

The Department of Dermatology at the Mid Western Regional Hospital has written to doctors in the area saying that it has a waiting list of more than 2,000 patients and two vacant consultant posts, Ailbhe Jordan reports in the Medical Independent.

In the letter, a consultant strongly recommended that GPs refer dermatology patients to other hospitals “in the interest of patient safety”. He said the hospital currently has one dermatologist for every 360,000 people, while elsewhere the ratio is one to 90,000.

For more, read Ailbhe Jordan’s story in the Medical Independent here>

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