IT IS laughable that the Government is sending booklets to every home in the country on how to cope with an emergency when it can't sort out the "emergency" in A&E departments, the son of a woman who spent more than 60 hours on a trolley has said. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports.
Eamon McEntee said his mother Peg (76) was on a trolley at Dublin's Mater hospital waiting for a bed in the A&E unit until yesterday afternoon. She was taken there by ambulance from her home in Glasnevin, Dublin, on Monday night after suffering a heart attack.
She was eventually admitted to a bed at about 3.30pm after her case was highlighted in the media.
"We don't think you should have to get in touch with the media in order to get your mother what you feel she's due," said Mr McEntee.
"However, we are relieved she now has a bed but we're hoping that somebody else hasn't been pushed aside to take the attention off the hospital and the Minister."
The mother of nine, who suffers from Alzheimer's and emphysema, had to endure "third world" conditions in the A&E, her son claimed.
He explained that on Monday night she was located on a corridor because the A&E was overflowing. When she needed to go to the toilet staff were too busy to take her and she was left to soil herself. After that episode staff put a nappy on her. "But my mother does not suffer from incontinence," he stressed. His mother felt she was a burden and "just wanted to die at that stage".
He also said his mother had to wait six hours before a doctor came to see her, but by then she had been put on oxygen by a nurse. She also had to wait more than a day to see the cardiology team, he said.
However, he said she did receive treatment while on the trolley.
It wasn't until Tuesday evening, some 17 hours after she arrived in A&E, that a decision to admit her was made. "It was only after they had officially admitted her that they went to find a bed for her," he said.
Mr McEntee said the billions going into the health service seemed to be going on administrative staff and layers of bureaucracy rather than on frontline services. He said it was now time for Minister for Health Mary Harney to resign.
"She has had three years to do the job and she has always said she is making progress but there's no progress that we can see either in A&E or any other part of the health service," he said.
Questioned by reporters in Dublin Ms Harney said she didn't believe the woman had waited so long to see a cardiologist.
"There are many cases that sometimes come into the public domain. I'm not specifically talking about this one, and very often the facts that emerge do not bear out what is often said in public. I'm not saying that this is such a case but it would be highly inappropriate for me to comment on an individual case," she said.
In a statement the Mater hospital apologised for the distress that has been caused to Mrs McEntee and her family. It explained that it was simply overcrowded.
"As the hospital is operating at 100 per cent occupancy we are dependent on discharges from the hospital in order to transfer patients from the emergency department to beds around the hospital.
"We currently have approximately 100 patients awaiting discharge from the hospital into long-term care which can have a significant impact on bed turnover," it said.