Trolley ‘torture’ at all-time high
Man, 64, waits over four days as 714 ‘languishing’
A 64-YEAR-OLD man was left languishing on a hospital trolley for four and a half days, it emerged yesterday as the number of patients waiting for a bed hit a worrying record high.
The shocking case of the lengthy wait being endured by one patient at Tallaght University Hospital was flagged by a concerned consultant at the hospital who said ‘it’s only a matter of time’ before the next waiting list death.
Dr Jim Gray added that what many elderly patients were having to suffer was tantamount to ‘torture’.
There were 714 patients on trolleys or on wards awaiting admission to a hospital bed yesterday, according to Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation figures – the highest number ever recorded.
To help hospitals cope, the Health Service Executive was forced to cancel all non-urgent operations yesterday.
In a letter to the Minister for Health Simon Harris yesterday, an apoplectic Dr Gray said: ‘It is only a matter of time before our next trolley-related [incident leads to] serious morbidity or death.
‘Unfortunately, the ED is dangerous and unsafe at 08.00 again this morning at Tallaght University Hospital.
‘There are 25 admitted patients awaiting a bed, languishing on trolleys in the ED with further numbers on trolleys onwards. 17 of these patients in ED are languishing over 24 hrs. The longest is a 64-year-old, awaiting on a trol- ley for 4 days 13 hrs (109 hrs at 08.00 and counting) to get a bed and the oldest is an elderly patient 84 yrs of age , languishing for 1 day 4 hrs (28hrs). There are 4 elderly patients over 75 yrs of age on trolleys for greater than 24 hrs.’
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said warnings were not heeded and she called for emergency response plans to be put in place.
She said: ‘This upsurge was predictable and the INMO warned against inaction or insufficient action in the wake of Storm Emma. It is unfortunate for both healthcare staff and patients that these warnings were not heeded and that emergency measures sought have not been put in place.’
Following a meeting of the Emergency Department Task Force yesterday, Simon Harris announced an additional €5million funding for the HSE to create more home-care packages, home-help hours and transitional care beds.
He said that the health service was already congested before Storm Emma and noted there was a backlog built up by the storm that has not been cleared.
The INMO trolley watch figures showed that University Hospital Limerick had the highest number of admitted patients – with a total of 80 on trolleys yesterday morning.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: ‘Clearly there’s a lot of work to be done and while, in part, it’s going to require additional resources from Government which are coming, it’s going to require much, much better management as well.’
Tallaght consultant Dr Jim Gray told the Mail: ‘Monday was busy, overcrowded, dangerous and unsafe... Every day last week, we had over 600 or more on trolley. It’s State institutional abuse, as I have said before... Patients are subjected to conditions that can only be described as torture.’
‘It is only a matter of time’
FOR all the critical coverage of the Strategic Communications Unit in recent times, the plain truth is that this is largely a media obsession.
Meanwhile, out in the real world, one of the issues that matters most to ordinary people is getting steadily worse.
The number of patients languishing on hospital trolleys has hit a new record high. According to at least one senior doctor, it is only a matter of time before we see another trolley-related death.
Of course, it goes without saying that this is a completely scandalous state of affairs. Perhaps the saddest indictment of the health service, though, is that the situation is now so familiar to us all that it barely seems a newsworthy subject.
It is difficult to remember a time when we had an acceptable level of healthcare in this country. But even a few short years ago, it would have been a national scandal that a 64-year-old man had spent four-anda-half days on a trolley. Now it almost appears to be par for the course.
Granted, there are a lot of public services that need improving and upgrading. There is also only a finite amount of money to fund the necessary investment. Everybody knows and accepts that.
The most frustrating issue in relation to the health service, though, is the lack of a coherent plan to get us from where we are now to where we need to be. As far as the layman can see, the powers-that-be are simply trying to make the best out of a bad lot. To use a medical analogy, they are attempting to manage the symptoms rather than cure the patient.
With the announcement last week that HSE director general Tony O’Brien will leave the job at the end of the summer, there is further uncertainty in the air.
No one disputes that it will be challenging and difficult to devise a proper strategy to address the situation, but it is incumbent on our political leaders to do so. After drawing up a plan, they need to convince people of its merits – and then they must put it into action without any delay.
Only by doing that can they hope to deliver a system that is fit for purpose. Otherwise, we will continue to see a health service that is lurching from crisis to crisis.