Consultant warns hospital emergency departments in crisis

The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine has warned the health service is in a state of crisis and does not have enough beds or staff.

Sligo consultant Fergal Hickey, spokesman for the association, said emergency departments all over the country are losing nurses and consultant positions cannot be filled.

Middle grade doctors will not work in emergency departments because of the intolerable conditions, he said on RTE's Morning Ireland.

“The overcrowding problem is only going to be tackled when there is a stable government prepared to do what’s necessary.

“It is a consistent, persistent problem that nobody has tackled.

“Rather than their posturing and game playing, this courtship ritual that seems to be afoot, they should be dealing with the serious crises in this country - the health service is not the only one. It is only going to be tackled when you have a stable government ready to do what is necessary, and that means investment.

“You cannot create hospital bed capacity without investment in facilities, investment in staff and support.”

Mr Hickey said that last night in Sligo Regional Hospital there were five ambulances in a queue waiting to get their patients onto trolleys, patients on corridors. Staff had to move trolleys to get to patients.

“There is incontrovertible evidence that if you have patients over 75 detained on a trolley for over 12 hours you will have bad outcomes.

“Until someone faces up and does something about it people are going to continue to die who shouldn’t die.”

Mr Hickey’s comment on staffing levels contradicts a claim by Robert Watt, the secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure and reform who maintains the levels of pay on offer to people entering the public service is not hampering the State’s ability to recruit high-calibre staff.

Meanwhile, March was one of the worst months on record for overcrowding in Ireland’s hospitals, a major union has warned.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said analysis of its daily reports from accident and emergency units showed 9,381 patients spent time waiting on trolleys for a bed in a ward.

The union said it was a 5 per cent increase on the same month last year, and the figures also showed a 100 per cent increase in overcrowding in hospitals compared with March 2008 when 4,701 patients waited on trolleys.

The Department of Health said that January is traditionally the worst month of the year for trolley waits and overcrowding due to a number of factors including fractures caused by falls on icy ground, winter bugs such as the norovirus, flu and delays in discharging patients.

Of those waiting, 539 were waiting for a bed at University Hospital Galway.

However, the figure for UHG has dropped by 15 per cent, when compared to the figure for March of last year.

All non-urgent surgeries were cancelled at the hospital on Tuesday for the second time in five days as a result of overcrowding.

The INMO said the numbers are startling and added that the health service continues to face intolerable levels of overcrowding because of a lack of beds and staff despite other initiatives.

INMO general secretary Liam Doran said the overcrowding is worsening against a backdrop of steep increase in demand, a lack of beds and a severe shortage of nurses.

“Notwithstanding this period of political inertia, nothing must get in the way of whatever special measures are necessary to lessen the current environment facing patients and frontline staff,” he said.

Mr Doran has called for an immediate meeting of the emergency department implementation group, set up to try to resolve the crisis last year.

The INMO figures included reports on the worst affected hospitals:

- Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore, had trolley waits up from 204 to 568 in the last year

- South Tipperary General Hospital was up from 233 to 552

-University Hospital Limerick was up from 558 to 710

- Cork University Hospital was up from 412 to 550

- Bantry General Hospital was up from 39 to 146

The agreement involving the INMO, the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health to resolve the overcrowding is to be reassessed on Friday April 15th.

PA