St Vincent’s denies undercounting trolley figures

St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin has rejected claims by nurses that it is underestimating overcrowding in its emergency department.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is to ballot members in the department for industrial action over what it says is months of overcrowding placing patients at increased risk and staff under intolerable pressures.

The union says trolley numbers at St Vincent’s are up 137 per cent in the first eight months of the year, compared with the same period in 2014. Notwithstanding this, it claims the manner in which management report the number of patients on trolleys underestimates the level of overcrowding each morning.

“The INMO has raised this issue directly with management in the hospital, who have refused to count trolleys in the same way as other hospitals,” said industrial relations officer Philip McAnenly.

“Our members are totally frustrated at management’s failure to address this problem or even acknowledge the extent of the crisis caused by this overcrowding.”

St Vincent’s said it has been submitting figures to the INMO’s national trolley count since 2006 and the manner in which it calculates them has remained unchanged over that time.

No patient is removed from the list until such time as an actual bed has been assigned to them, a spokeswoman said.

“If a patient has been approved for discharge by their consultant or the admitting team they are only then removed from the trolley figures.”

The INMO recorded 20 patients on trolleys in St Vincent's on Friday, compared with 47 in Beaumont Hospital. Nationally, a total of 384 patients were on trolleys or in wards waiting for admission to hospital.