Elderly patients left on trolleys for days in A&E have become so confused they have had to be sedated, the annual conference of the Irish Nurses' Organisation heard yesterday as members of the union voted unanimously to support a motion of no confidence in Minister for Health Mary Harney.
The INO, the State's largest nursing union with over 33,000 members, said afterwards it was the first time in its almost 100-year history it had passed a motion of no confidence in a health minister.
The motion stemmed from Ms Harney's failure to solve the crisis in A&E units.
Edel Peoples, a delegate from Letterkenny, said of Ms Harney's performance: "Promises have not been kept. Time frames and expectations have not been met. Her famous 10-point plan was hailed as the ultimate solution. It has not delivered."
After months of protesting that the A&E crisis was limited to a few hospitals, she said, the Minister finally declared the problem a national emergency days after an actor appeared on the Late Late Show complaining about the situation in A&E.
"Mind you he was the General," she said, referring to the actor Brendan Gleeson's role in the film of the same name.
Patrick Gallagher, an A&E nurse in Beaumont, said what he had witnessed in the past year was "just awful".
"It's like at times that the department that we work in is about to fall down . . . a lot of my colleagues break down in tears because of the compromised care that they are giving to these patients," he said.
"I've watched elderly people coming into our A&E department that have been fine and then after three days I've had to sedate them because of their confusion because of the department that they're in. It's a disgrace. "The 10-point plan has failed . . . and if the Minister can't handle the job she should leave," he added.
Derek Reilly, a nurse at Naas General said: "In the hospital where I work only recently people already in beds had to be asked would they mind moving back to trolleys because the people on the trolleys were elderly and more sick than the people in the beds."He added that Ms Harney had said in January 2005 that she expected "real and measurable improvements to take place in the coming months" in A&E and that it was a litmus test for the Government.
"The litmus test has failed Minister, the 10-point plan has failed," he said.
He stressed the buck stopped with the Minister. Ms Harney's 10-point plan, announced in November 2004 to solve the A&E crisis, was described as a "10-point scam" by Tallaght A&E nurse Alan O'Riordan.
Ken Spencer, from Mayo General Hospital, said this was a country where old and infirm people were afraid to go to the A&E department for fear they would end up on a trolley for days.
"We are living in a country where a woman who has been treated for ovarian cancer and is at risk of getting breast cancer has been told today that she will be due her scan at 11.30 on April 15th, 2008," he added.
Ms Harney, who did not attend the INO conference in Cavan as she is travelling to the US for another conference, issued a statement later describing the INO's vote of no confidence in her as "a pity".
"Debates like this don't really contribute to solutions for patients. And they don't diminish my determination one iota to achieve the world- class health service that Ireland deserves," she said.