Patients heading north for A&E treatment

March 2005

PATIENTS from throughout Louth are travelling to Newry’s Daisy Hill hospital to avoid long delays in the A&E department of Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda.

Latest figures reveal that over the past year there has been a 60-75% increase in the numbers travelling from the county to the A&E department at Daisy Hill where patients are guaranteed to be seen within an hour.

Those who travel outside the state are guaranteed treatment in around an hour in Newry, where overcrowding is rare and patients on trolleys virtually unheard off, according to Bernard Toale, administrative services manager for Newry Mourne Health and Social Services Trust.

He says no patient is ever refused treatment, and those presenting at the A&E would have to pay a charge of between £50 and £70 sterling.

Mr. Toale admits the number of people presenting is ‘quite substantial’ with a large increase in those heading north from south of the border.

Meanwhile, INO industrial relations representative for the north-east Tony Fitzpatrick says that while it is difficult to put an exact time-frame on the wait in the Lourdes A&E, patients have been known to wait for hours for treatment, with many of those awaiting admission kept overnight on trolleys.

He describes conditions at the Drogheda A&E department for nurses and patients as ‘deplorable’ and warns the situation is only going to get worse unless there is a significant investment in the hospital.

‘ The facilities are deplorable and tied in with that is the workload which continues to increase at an alarming rate because the whole area is expanding but the services aren’t.

‘ The situation is only going to get worse unless there is major investment,’ Mr Fitzpatrick concludes.