HSE agrees to talk to nurses after MoS exposé
LESS than 24 hours after the Irish Mail on Sunday reported on the conditions at Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda last week, HSE management agreed to a Labour Relations Commission intervention previously deemed unnecessary.
But as strike action at one overcrowded hospital was averted this week, nurses in another prepare to take action next week as pressure grows on the health system.
Trolley numbers were unusually high this week with 446 people in hospitals around the country unable to get a bed on Tuesday.
This figure is dangerously close to the 495 that prompted former health minister Mary Harney to declare a ‘national emergency’ in 2006.
In spite of the ongoing talks at the
‘Trolley figures close to national emergency’
Drogheda hospital, trolley numbers have continued to creep up with 38 people on trolleys there on Thursday – up from 28 on the day the MoS was there the week before.
Some of these people are in the secluded Emergency Department but staff have been forced to place others on open corridors.
A spokeswoman said the hospital is working to help patients who are ready to leave the hospital but need a ‘step-down’ bed before returning home.
She said among other initiatives: ‘This month a contract commenced with Cappagh Hospital for the provision of 10 orthopaedic rehabilitation beds for our patients requiring reha- bilitation post-hip fracture.’
But Drogheda is far from the only hospital facing this challenge. HSE figures show that 746 people were trapped in hospitals at the end of September even though their treatment was finished.
Their ‘delayed discharge’ is caused by a lack of respite beds or home help following budget cuts.
The latest HSE performance report shows 5,779 more people attended Emergency Departments nationally between January and September than in the same period last year. This, coupled with fewer staff and bed closures, is leading to overcrowding.
Some of the elderly patients in St Patrick’s Hospital in Waterford have to stay in bed all day because there is not enough staff to care for them, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Union. Nurses will hold a one-hour protest to highlight concerns on Wednesday.
The INMO’s Mary Power said: ‘On a regular basis there is just one nurse rostered to care for 34 patients in a ward from 4pm through to 8am.’
She said the five-year old recruitment freeze coupled with a reduced spend on agency staff means smaller numbers of staff treating the same number of patients. But she added that staff are in talks with management about changes to the situation.