THE IRISH Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) has called for an end to the recruitment moratorium at Galway University Hospital after non-emergency admissions were cancelled yesterday.
All elective non-urgent admissions were cancelled by the Health Service Executive West following unprecedented overcrowding at the hospital’s emergency department in recent days.
A total of 51 patients, including five children, spent Wednesday night on trolleys at the emergency department. INMO representative Noreen Muldoon said just two nurses were available to care for patients in the department during the height of the crisis.
“We are demanding that the moratorium on staff recruitment be lifted immediately. Every area of the hospital is short-staffed. We also want the beds in wards that are closed to be opened to alleviate some of these problems,” Ms Muldoon said.
She said the number of patients on trolleys had dropped to 21 by yesterday afternoon after some were transferred to the hospital’s medical assessment unit and to Merlin Park Hospital.
In a statement yesterday, the hospital apologised to patients who had spent time on trolleys.
“Yesterday morning, we had an unprecedented number of patients in the ED. The situation has improved today, Friday at 8am . . . there were 19 patients awaiting admission. We do of course regret that any patient has to wait an undue length of time to be admitted to hospital.”
A spokesperson for the Health Service Executive West said the organisation is proposing a number of measures next month to help alleviate long waiting times in the emergency department.
These include plans to open a haematology oncology assessment area so these patients will not have to go through emergency; introducing a dedicated telephone line for GPs to contact senior clinicians at the hospital to avoid patients having to visit the emergency department and the opening of a surgical assessment unit where patients can be sent quickly from the emergency department and which can also accept direct referrals.