A&E compared to hell as woman is jailed for disorderly behaviour

AN experienced healthcare professional claimed that working in the accident and emergency department at Altnagelvin Area Hospital was the closest she could imagine to being in hell, a judge said yesterday.

Barney McElholm made the comment as he jailed a 35-yearold woman for four months after she admitted committing disorderly behaviour in the hospital on Wednesday night.

Kerry Ogilby from Great James Street in Londonderry, who had 96 previous criminal convictions, was taken to the hospital by members of an ambulance crew after she was found passed out in a city centre street.

A Public Prosecution Service solicitor said that shortly after Ogilby arrived in the hospital, staff called the police to report she was involved in an ongoing disturbance.

She was highly intoxicated and constantly shouted and swore at medical staff in front of members of the public.

She refused several police requests to calm down and she was then arrested. After her arrest she became even more aggressive and tried to escape.

The officers then forced her to the ground and applied limb restrains. She continued to kick out and police put her in a chair.

Defence solicitor Seamus Quigley said Ogilby, who admitted the charge, had spent three days in the hospital last week after she had sustained head injuries and a suspected facial fracture following an assault.

He said because of her state of intoxication, Ogilby remembered neither being taken to hospital nor her behaviour in hospital.

Mr McElholm said: “I know of a well-known district nurse who described working in accident and emergency as the closest thing she could imagine to hell and this was Altnagelvin Hospital’s accident and emergency within the last five years.”

The judge said like many people he had been in an A&E department.

“It is a time when you are fearful and worried about what is going to happen. I can only imagine what it is like to be greeted by this sort of behaviour,” he said. “You have doctors and nurses trying to treat people while at the same time being spat at, assaulted and sworn at.

“There is no excuse for this sort of behaviour in a hospital setting. People have to realise if you do this in a hospital you are going to jail.”