Where there is overcrowding in hospital A&E units, the question of risk to patients arises, the head of the new Health Service Executive (HSE) conceded yesterday.
Mr Kevin Kelly, interim chief executive of the HSE, was commenting after receiving a request from the Health and Safety Authority for urgent safety inspections to be carried out in every hospital A&E unit in the State. Mr Kelly said the request was being taken very seriously.
He said conditions in A&E units, many of which experience overcrowding with patients on trolleys on a daily basis, were unacceptable. It was a priority for the HSE to address this. "Where there is overcrowding, certainly the question of risk arises."
The Health and Safety Authority request to the HSE followed claims by the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association this week that overcrowding in A&E units posed a serious risk to the safety of patients.
"Obviously if anybody is at risk you would be very concerned... Where there is overcrowding certainly the question of risk arises. One hopes, with the skills and the dedication of the staff there, that these risks are being minimised," Mr Kelly said.
"We will work with each individual hospital to see that an audit is carried out to ensure that there are no risks, or if any risks are identified, what we do about it as a matter of urgency".
He was speaking at the official opening of a €96 million development at James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, Dublin, which includes a new A&E unit and other facilities.
The new development had been idle for some time due to a failure to provide funds to staff and equip it. After some controversy, €10.7 million was provided in September to allow it to open.
The new wing is being called after the late Dr Noel Browne, and it was announced yesterday the hospital is being renamed Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown.
Meanwhile the number of patients on trolleys in A&E units yesterday reached 229, the Irish Nurses Organisation said.
Dr Conor Burke, a consultant respiratory physician at Blanchardstown hospital, said he had conducted a study which indicated 30 per cent of patients over just one three-month period last year were taking up beds unnecessarily because there were no step-down facilities.
He found 486 bed days were occupied by these "overstaying patients", and if they were freed up it would have allowed treatment of 54 per cent more patients without more hospital beds.
The survey was conducted when Dr Burke was on call, and he does a one-in-six rota. On this basis, he said, it was fair to assume the number of inappropriate bed days for the entire hospital over the three months was six times 486, or 2,916 bed days.
Over the same three-month period, 412 patients were on trolleys overnight in the hospital's A&E unit, 383 surgical day-case and 148 elective in-patient procedures were cancelled, and 32 medical admissions were cancelled due to a shortage of beds.