Situation at SUH Emergency Dept is “truly shocking”
Local councillor says there are genuine fears that “something serious” will happen to a patient at under pressure department
THE situation at Sligo University Hospital’s emergency department was described as “truly shocking” by a councillor who says he now fears “something serious” is going to happen to a patient in Accident & Emergency. As figures released showing the consistently high numbers of people on trolleys at SUH, Cllr Thomas Walsh revealed how constituents told him about a 91-year-old woman, a family member, who had to wait in an ambulance outside the Emergency Department for over four hours.
She then spent over 49 hours on a trolley in the Emergency Department, he said.
“We all tend to look at the figures, but we need to look behind the figures to the real people like this elderly woman who makes up these figures,” he said.
Cllr Walsh told the Sligo Weekender that the high recent trolley numbers over the last seven to 10 days have brought the problem to a new level.
“Over the last 11 days my phone has been inundated with calls from patients, from patients’ families and staff. It is an intolerable situation.
“In the last six days the hospital went so far as to release details that ‘there was no clinical space available’. On Tuesday week last week, 139 people attended the emergency department, while an unprecedented 173 attended on Monday,” he said.
Cllr Walsh told the Sligo Weekender the high recent trolley numbers over the last seven to 10 days have brought the problem to a new level.