Staff and management at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth have met today to discuss the current overcrowding crisis at the accident and emergency department.
The hospital yesterday had a record 40 people on trolleys at the A&E department, some 15 of whom had been waiting since Friday night. Ambulances were being held up at the hospital due to the shortage of trolleys.
According to the Irish Nurses' Organisation, the number of people on trolleys at the hospital today is 39.
The INO yesterday warned the HSE of the danger of centralising too many services at one hospital without first putting in place the additional resources required.
Tony Fitzpatrick, the INO representative for the northeast, said yesterday the crisis was a result of mistakes made in the past, where services provided at other hospitals in the northeast, such as trauma and orthopaedics, were transferred "without putting resources/ infrastructure in place to cope with the extra demands being put on the hospital”.
He said the emergency department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital does not have the capacity to deal with the rising number of attendances.
The HSE admitted there were “severe pressures” on the A&E in Drogheda and that elective surgery might have to be cancelled. It added that a new A&E unit would be in place this year.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) this afternoon said overcrowding at the hospital was a direct consequence of the HSE failing to adequately plan provide for the consolidation of acute hospital services in the north east.
"Consultants and other staff are working around the clock in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and the other hospitals in Louth-Meath to treat these seriously ill patients as quickly as possible. In the interim, the HSE should make immediate arrangements to provide suitable alternative accommodation for the fifteen patients in the hospital who have been medically discharged and are waiting an appropriate placement," the association said in a statement.
"It is patently obvious that efforts by the HSE to implement the Teamwork Report of 2006 without the necessary investment will not work. Suggestions by the HSE that up to 1,000 acute hospital beds could be taken out of service nationally this year sound very hollow in light of the overcrowding in Drogheda and other hospitals," it added.
Separately, Fine Gael criticised Minister for Health Mary Harney for not intervening to help solve the overcrowding problem.
"The crisis in the health service continues unabated in the first two weeks of 2009 but the Minister for Health is missing in action. Many of the ongoing problems began long before the present financial crisis but while responsibility rests with this Government leadership is absent," said the party's spokeswoman on health Frances Fitzgerald.