HOSPITAL'S RESPONSE:THE GOVERNANCE problems that led to the death of a man on a trolley in a corridor at Tallaght hospital in Dublin were down to "a failure of leadership", the chairman of the hospital's interim board has said.
At a press conference yesterday following the publication by the Health Information and Quality Authority of a report following its investigation into the hospital, Sir Keith Pearson said people would not want to be accommodated on a trolley in a corridor.
“For that not to penetrate the leadership of the hospital is worrying,” he said. “Let’s get the context right here – this was a failure of leadership.”
Sir Keith said the interim board, appointed last December, had concentrated on ensuring they had “the right values”.
“It doesn’t cost money to deliver dignified care; once you get the culture, the values and the behaviours right at the leadership level, you release the clinical staff to get on and do what they do extraordinarily well in this hospital.”
Hospital chief executive Eilish Hardiman said the authority’s findings were serious and far-reaching.
“The safety, welfare and wellbeing of patients are key priorities for this hospital,” she said. “The hospital accepts the recommendations of the Hiqa report in their totality and without exception.”
They would fully implement the recommendations and had already begun to do so. “The report has highlighted many of the issues which also came to my attention when I took up the role of chief executive last August.”
Ms Hardiman, who is the fifth chief executive at the hospital in three years, said she was heartened to be able to report that “the urgent care issues have already been addressed”.
Trolley waiting times were down by 60 per cent for admitted patients, from 19 hours to seven, and patients were no longer being accommodated on trolleys in the corridor.
A pilot early warning system had been put in place to detect when a patient was deteriorating in the emergency department and a new medical assessment unit was established to ensure patients were seen “within one hour by a senior clinician”.
Ms Hardiman said last October that 33 per cent of the hospital’s beds were taken up by people awaiting long-term care. The hospital had worked with the special delivery unit, set up last year by the Minister for Health to tackle waiting lists, and the numbers waiting had been reduced by 70 per cent.
She also said she had met and had offered her condolences to the family of Thomas Walsh (65) whose death on a trolley in a corridor of the hospital had triggered the investigation.
