The expanded Medical Assessment Unit services across UL Hospitals Group are making a significant and positive impact on delivering timely care to growing thousands of Midwest patients referred by their GPs to hospital for urgent medical attention.
Following a €5.2m investment extending MAUs at St John’s and Nenagh Hospitals to seven-day services from April 2023, and securing the already extended MAU at Ennis, total referrals by GPs to all three units in the year to date has almost surpassed the full-year referral total for 2022.
The latest available data confirms that by mid-October, GPs across the region had referred a total of 12,087 patients to MAUs via the Bed Bureau at University Hospital Limerick since the beginning of the year. The numbers of patients seen in all three units for all of 2022 totalled 12,683.
The most significant increase in referrals has been at Nenagh Hospital, where referrals in 2023 to date (3,287) are exceeding the numbers referred in all of 2022 by 33%.
While it should be emphasised that MAUs are not a walk-in service, the gains are significant for patient access, and for GPs who regard the units as a lifeline in the management of more complex general practice cases.
Dr Rory Glynn, a general practitioner based in the Primary Care Centre in Borrisokane, Co Tipperary, said the expanded MAU in Nenagh Hospital “has proven to be an important and invaluable service to the patients and GPs of the Midwest region”.
Medical Assessment Units are staffed by multidisciplinary teams including medical doctors, nurses, Allied Health Professionals, Health & Social Care Professionals (HSCPs) and administrative staff.
MAUs provide diagnosis and treatment for patients referred with a wide variety of medical conditions, including chest infections, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), pneumonia, urinary tract infections, fainting episodes, clots in the leg, and anaemia. Patients will be reviewed by a senior clinician and may require x-rays, blood tests, scans or further diagnostic imaging.
Tom Torrance from Upperchurch was referred to the MAU after attending his GP for a blood test. “The GP wasn’t happy with the blood count and so I got a phone call about tea-time from the surgery, telling me they’d arranged an appointment at the MAU the following morning.”
Tom was in the Unit for around five hours as the healthcare team thoroughly checked the issue of his blood count against his medical history. “I’ve had other experiences of hospital care in the region, and I told the MAU staff that it was really refreshing to be able to have an appointment, to come up, get in, get dealt with, have action taken, and then be out of the place before teatime,” he said.
He was particularly impressed with the communication between the MAU team and other doctors he attends, as well as a referral onwards to a specialist clinic for further tests, and the liaison with his GP on the various actions taken. “I’ve been in the system for about 13 years, and at times, communication isn’t always the strongest point, so that really stood out, the linking in with my other doctors, or at least keeping them in the loop.”
He continued: “In larger hospitals, like Limerick, which are much busier, sometimes you feel more like just another patient in a bed and you can be waiting for a very long time to be seen. But I found in the MAU and in Nenagh Hospital generally, the atmosphere is much more what you’d expect from an Irish general hospital. You feel as if the people are your friends, almost; the staff make you feel so welcome. It was an ‘enjoyable’ experience, if that’s the right word!”
“From the point of view of getting the appointment and the diagnosis and treatment and being discharged again within five hours, I’d vote for the MAU approach, where appropriate, every time,” Tom concluded.
For local GP Dr Rory Glynn, such stories vividly illustrate not only the standard of care available in the region’s smaller hospitals, but also the importance of these facilities in helping patients avoid the busy ED care pathway. “With the expert help of the Bed Bureau staff, the referral pathway for GPs is simple and straight forward. The MAUs see patients in a timely manner, and because of this, help alleviate the pressure on our colleagues in the ED at UHL.”
Dr Glynn added: “The feedback from patients who have attended the MAU in Nenagh is very positive. They report high levels of satisfaction with the service. Overall, it is an excellent service and I hope, in time, that it will improve further by providing more diagnostics at weekends such as laboratory tests and CT scans.”