Calls for urgent action over ED overcrowding as elective procedures postponed

An urgent response is needed to deal with rising numbers of patients being treated on trolleys, chairs and in other inappropriate bed spaces in emergency departments, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has said.

The union counted 793 patients being treated in EDs without an appropriate bed yesterday morning, including 111 in University Hospital Limerick, and 69 in University Hospital Galway.

In Galway, a number of scheduled elective procedures were postponed to deal with large numbers attending for emergency care. The Galway ED had 583 people attending over the bank holiday weekend (184 Saturday, 166 Sunday and 233 Monday).

“The high number of people attending who need to be admitted for ongoing treatment means that there is pressure on bed availability,” a statement from HSE West said. “This is resulting in significant delays being experienced by patients in the Emergency department who are waiting for a bed to become available on a ward.

“Due to bed shortages, the hospital is postponing some elective procedures. As always urgent, time sensitive cases are being prioritised. Patients are being contacted directly if their procedure is being postponed.

The hospital apologised for the inconvenience caused and urged people in the area to use alternative healthcare facilities when suitable, such as GPs, pharmacies and the Roscommon injury unit.

INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said the situation around the country is all too predictable and accused the HSE of failing to heed warnings from frontline workers.

“This problem cannot be excused away by increased attendances down to flu and other respiratory illnesses, we know that after each bank holiday there is a surge, what is missing is a plan to deal with these predictable annual events,” she said.

“Very sick patients are being placed on trolleys not just in clinically inappropriate spaces such as infection control wards, but also unsafe spaces such as in front of fire points and fire exits. With capacity at over the recommended 85 per cent in many hospitals today, the HSE needs to act urgently.”

She added: “As the employer is not complying with its statutory responsibilities, we believe it is now time for a cross-agency approach to dealing with the grave patient and staff safety concerns. This includes the Health and Safety Authority, HIQA and local authorities coming together to examine the actions of the HSE which disregard fire safety hazards and infection control concerns.”

Hospitals have also been affected by Storm Éowyn, where power outages closed GP practices and left many patients who use at-home electrical medical devices at serious risk.

Speaking on a visit to Mayo University Hospital (MUH) in Castlebar yesterday, new Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill acknowledged the impacts the storm had on health services.

Referring to the hospital’s management of the situation, she said: “ You had the generators in place, they worked quite well, but we were impacted by the pressures on water, and very conscious of patients in particular on dialysis for whom that’s absolutely essential.”

She said the issues around health is a ‘key learning’ for any future high-magnitude storms.

”We’re going to have to acknowledge that these storm events are too damaging to communities, that we are going to have to build our electricity resilience in a totally different way for the future, and that’s going to impact people differently

“I particularly wanted to come to the emergency department (in MUH) when it was at its busiest, not when it’s at its quietest,” she added.

“I recognise that there has been good work done here over the past 12 months, that presentations and the pressure on the emergency department has fallen very considerably in that 12-month period.

“But today it is quite difficult, and I certainly acknowledge that now is, in my view, the time to be here to see that pressure and to work with the hospital community to try to help reduce that.”