IMO urges action on ‘unacceptable’ overcrowding at Beaumont

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has called on Health Service Executive director general Tony O'Brien to take urgent action and address "unacceptable" levels of overcrowding in Beaumont Hospital's emergency department.

There were 39 patients on trolleys in the emergency department, many of them elderly, and a further seven admitted patients on wards this morning, according to daily tallies.

The IMO said this amounted to 200 per cent occupancy, heading into what is likely to be a busy October bank holiday weekend.

“Patients should not have to endure such miserable and degrading treatment at any time, let alone when they are at their most vulnerable. The committed doctors who staff this department cannot practice safe medicine in such overcrowded and unsafe conditions,” said the IMO.

IMO concerns

The union said it had written to the hospital three times in the last two months but received no response. “Given the clear lack of will, or capacity, among hospital management to deal with this issue, it is imperative that senior management in the HSE, including the director general, intervene to take the necessary steps to ensure that patients receive the care that they need, without having to endure inordinate delays.”

Beaumont was forced to seek “off-call assistance” last night from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, when 18 of the patients waiting for admission were aged over 75.

The hospital, which expressed regret over the difficult conditions experienced by patients and staff, said 33 in-patient ward beds were not available, largely because of refurbishment work for transplant patients.