The HSE has confirmed that Kilkee father of three Dan McDonnell could have been admitted to Ennis General Hospital’s Emergency Department instead of travelling to Limerick on the night he died.
The Health Service Executive say that protocols are in place that would have allowed the 59 year old be admitted to Ennis even though the A and E Department was closed for the night…
The Kilkee man died after suffering a heart attack in an ambulance on Limerick’s Dock Road after the ambulance had bypassed the closed A&E unit at Ennis General in the early hours of Sunday, April 19th.
National Director with the Health Service Executive, John O’Brien says that the protocol issued to the out-of-hours GP service Shannondoc stated that the vast majority of acute medical conditions can be admitted to Ennis General at any hour of the day provided that after 8 o’clock in the evening, the referral must come from the patient’s GP…
He states that in the protocol, a list of medical conditions treatable at Ennis General Hospital was also provided which includes acute breathlessness and/or chest pain.
Emergency services were called to the home of 59 year old Dan McDonnell in Kilkee in the early hours on Sunday morning, the 19th April last where he was suffering from chest pain.
He was taken by ambulance to Limerick’s Regional Hospital but went into cardiac arrest on the Dock Road in Limerick and was pronounced dead at the hospital around half six in the morning.
The HSE is carrying out a clinical review into the circumstances around Mr McDonnell’s death.