Man awaiting hospital discharge for over four months

Brian Murtagh (43), who had a stroke last year, has been ready for discharge from hospital for over four months.

A patient at Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, Co Meath, he lost power down his left side. He needs a bed in the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) in Dún Laoghaire in order to leave. None so far is available.

"I have been in hospital now for 138 days," he said yesterday. "I've been ready to go for months but the NRH haven't a bed. My doctor has called them. My TDs, Damien English (Fine Gael) and Peadar Tóibín (Sinn Féin), have called them. I have called them. They keep saying my name is on the list."

Following the stroke, he had surgery in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin to have a clot removed from his brain before being transferred to Navan.

“The stroke left me with no power in my left arm or left leg. I couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk, couldn’t wash myself, go to the toilet. It was terrifying. I was two weeks in Beaumont. I’ve been on the waiting list for the NRH since then.”

He has physiotherapy five days a week, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and had therapy to relearn how to swallow.

More resources

“My physio here, she’s great, she does her damnedest, but even she says I need more than I am getting. The NRH have more resources and facilities. I’d be getting physio seven days a week. ”

A spokeswoman for the NRH said the waiting list for its 110 beds had grown over recent years, as the number of referrals increased without any increase in bed capacity. The waiting list had grown from about 150 five years ago to 237 at present.

The longest wait is for the brain injury programme – for which Brian is waiting - with 155 people. Depending on the severity of injury the wait can be up to one year.

A total of 38 people are waiting for a place on the spinal injury programme, 13 for the prosthetic programme, and 31 children are waiting for a paediatric bed.

The NRH had funding and planning permission to build a new, 235-bed hospital in 2008. “Unfortunately like everyone we fell victim to the collapse in the economy and the project did not go ahead,” said the spokeswoman.

However, the NRH has now secured funding for a new 120-bed hospital. Tendering for its construction is under way and it is hoped construction may begin this year.

“We are hopeful, once that is done, to proceed to Phase 2 and expand capacity.”

Depression

Mr Murtagh, who remains on an eight-bed ward in Navan, has been given no date for a bed in the NRH, and says he “gets into a state of depression” about it.

A former chef, he is separated from his wife, but has a “great” relationship with his 13 year-old daughter.

“But I have too much time to think, thinking about the past, regrets. I know I have a lot to live for. I’d like to get back to work. I have a great family, great friends, but I feel life is passing me here. If I could just get a start at the NRH I know I could get back to it sooner.”

Peadar Tóibín said Mr Murtagh was the “latest in a long line” of patients clinically discharged from Navan hospital but forced to wait – “some over a year” – for a bed in the NRH. The Minister for Health may think he is saving money by not providing capacity in Dún Laoghaire but it is costing hundreds of thousands of euro in other hospitals.”

The HSE would not comment on an individual case.