16 children among the 606 patients on trolleys...
»»highest number since March last year »»doctor warns of potential fatalities
MORE than 600 patients were left languishing on trolleys yesterday, the nurses’ union has revealed.
A shocking 606 people were waiting for beds, the highest number since March of last year.
Thirteen of these patients were children under the age of 16.
The situation has been branded “utterly crazy” and potentially fatal by one emergency medicine consultant.
Of those waiting, 439 were left on trolleys or chairs in emergency departments, while 167 were waiting in wards and elsewhere throughout the hospitals, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation revealed.
The worst hit hospital yesterday was University Hospital Limerick, with 59 people there waiting for beds.
South Tipperary General Hospital – a small facility whose emergency department has only four beds – had 50 people waiting for a bed.
NMO spokesman Michael Pidgeon said: “It’s one thing to have 50 patients waiting in a 1,000-bed hospital, but it’s another thing in a hospital with only four beds.” Meanwhile, Cork University Hospital had 48 people waiting. Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, had five patients under the age of 16 were left without a bed. Eight patients were left without one in Temple Street Children’s Hospital in North Dublin.
The lack of beds is “utterly crazy” – and potentially fatal, said Dr Fergal Hickey, a consultant in emergency medicine at Sligo University Hospital and spokesman for the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine.
The rising number of patients waiting for beds comes as nurses continue to highlight failings in the health service, with threats of an upcoming work stoppage continuing.
INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: “Going on strike is the last thing a nurse or midwife wants to do, but they are not able give patients the care they deserve.
“The HSE simply cannot recruit enough nurses and midwives on these wages. That means we can’t expand the health service and patients will continue to be forced to wait on trolleys and in corridors.”news@irishmirror.ie