What a disgrace!
Patients forced to languish on trolleys in hospital corridor – and it’s only 10.30am on a Thursday
THESE pictures show the reality of Ireland’s creaking public health system – a reality that has driven staff to go on strike next week.
Eight patients sit on trolleys in a narrow corridor of an A&E unit already overflowing with patients by mid-morning.
Nurses at the emergency department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda will take industrial action on Tuesday as patient numbers soar in hospitals across the country, leaving patients and staff under pressure.
When the Irish Mail on Sunday visited the hospital on Thursday, patients were lining the corridors by 10.30am.
Just last month the nurses’ union found a one-third increase in the number of patients languishing on trolleys nationally compared to October 2013. This is in spite of a scathing report by health watchdog Hiqa on this matter in 2012.
The report said: ‘Every hospital should cease the use of any inappropriate space (for example, a hospital corridor) to accommodate patients receiving clinical care.’
But last Tuesday, Health Minister Leo Varadkar said 1,559 additional patients were on trolleys up to November 7 compared with last year.
Mark Doyle, the president of the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine said the trolleys are simply the most visible sign of a congested system.
While patient numbers have risen with population growth, staffing has
An elderly lady climbed up onto her trolley
decreased. Almost 5,000 fewer nurses are on wards now than in 2007 according to Government figures, while bed closures have soared from 896 in 2010 to 2,031 this month.
Nurses, consultants and patient advocates have highlighted the issue, while Mr Varadkar has said the issue of patients lying on public corridors must be stopped.
When the MoS visited Our Lady of Lourdes, some patients were lying in corridors running from the door of the jam-packed A&E. One narrow corridor held six trolleys and a patient on a chair, with more patients on another, longer corridor. Empty trolleys waited on a third corridor, which was soon to be filled with patients.
One elderly lady wrapped in a dressing gown carefully pulled herself on to the trolley and lay there, staring at the ceiling.
A younger woman lay on a trolley reading magazines, resting a bandaged foot. Her handbag nestled between her and the wall.
As the day went on, numbers on trolleys rose to 28. Outside in the public waiting area, about 15 people waited for attention.
A spokesman said the HSE is ‘acutely aware’ of problems caused by increased admissions at the 304-bed hospital.
One challenge is the 58 patients who need a rehabilitation course or respite bed before they can return home. Six could go to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Co. Dublin but there are no beds.
The spokesman said the hospital has: ‘just closed a tender for 10 additional nursing home beds’, and will build another 12-bed unit next year.
However Tony Fitzpatrick, the Irish Nurses and Midwifes Organisation’s representative at the hospital, said: ‘Nurses often go home in tears at the end of the shift because they had so many patients to look after. If you have 28 patients on trolleys, that is the equivalent of a full ward to look after in addition to taking in new patients.’
He added: ‘There were five times as many patients on trolleys in
‘Nurses go home in tears at the end of the shift’
October this year as there were in October 2013.’
Sinn Féin councillor for Drogheda Imelda Munster said: ‘I have families saying they are under pressure to get their relative out of the hospital, they have been told they are medically fit
to leave. But it is one thing to say they are medically fit; they may be elderly and in need of a respite bed.’
Mr Doyle said some hospitals have unusually high numbers of trolleys in service already this winter. He warned that when flu season begins, the pressure will increase.
Previously, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association said long waits on trolleys have been linked to a 30% increase in mortality, something Mr Doyle echoes: ‘There is clear evidence that when patients are placed on trolleys it has detrimental effects on the patient,’ he said.
The Dublin North East group, covering parts of Dublin, Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan, has the three hospitals with the highest use of trolleys: Beaumont had 658 patients on trolleys last month, Our Lady of Lourdes had 631, and Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, had 570.
Almost 900 patients attend the emergency department in Beaumont Hospital every week. A hospital spokesman said numbers have increased recently while the discharge rate has fallen.
However the problem is not just confined to the north-east.
Eamon Timmins from Age Action said: ‘It costs over €800 for a public bed every night, when an enhanced care package for people in their home would be better value. We have people trapped in the most expensive beds in the health system.’
A draconian cut to grants for adapting homes to suit illness or injury last year has left people unable to return home, according to Sean Moynihan, head of charity Alone. He called for equal access to services.
Patient advocate Stephen McMahon said more support for tackling infections such as MRSA could help: ‘You could free up the equivalent of four or five bed-days by managing patient safety more efficiently.’
‘People are trapped in the system’s most costly beds’
In Galway University Hospital, 505 patients were on trolleys last month.
INMO representative Anne Burke said: ‘Even if we had double the staff tomorrow, we could not manage.’
A hospital spokesman said: ‘We acknowledge the difficulties that have been experienced by patients and also the hard work of our staff.’
The MoS has previously revealed that Mr Varadkar fears a flu epidemic could swamp hospitals this winter. At a meeting in Cork in September, he said he was checking trolley numbers daily as they shot up over the summer and warned colleagues of an approaching crisis.