HOSPITAL CONSULTANTS have claimed that overcrowding at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, is a direct consequence of the Health Service Executive (HSE) failing to plan adequately for acute services in the northeast.
Staff and management at the hospital met yesterday to discuss the ongoing overcrowding crisis at the accident and emergency (AE) department. On Monday, the hospital had a record 40 people on trolleys at the AE department, some of whom had been waiting since Friday night.
Adult medical and surgical patients are being referred to two other hospitals in the region due to the overcrowding. According to the Irish Nurses Organisation, there were still 39 people on trolleys at the hospital yesterday.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), which represents more than 1,800 members, said overcrowding was a major safety issue for both patients and staff. “Patients are being crammed two and even three to a cubicle with more being accommodated on trolleys and in corridors,” said IHCA assistant secretary general Donal Duffy
“Consultants and other staff are working around the clock in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and the other hospitals in Louth-Meath to treat these seriously ill patients as quickly as possible,” he said.
The IHCA said suggestions by the HSE that up to 1,000 acute hospital beds could be taken out of service nationally this year sound very hollow in light of the overcrowding in Drogheda and other hospitals.
Fine Gael criticised Minister for Health Mary Harney for not intervening to help solve the overcrowding problem in hospitals.
“Ambulances queuing because trolleys have run out and patients receiving their entire treatment on a trolley are the hallmarks of a health service in crisis,” Fine Gael Senator Frances Fitzgerald said.
Following yesterday’s meeting, the HSE said it had been agreed that Our Lady of Lourdes would remain “on protected call” in order to relieve pressure on the emergency department and “in the interest of patient safety”.
Adult patients with medical complaints will be referred to Louth County Hospital, Dundalk or Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan. Adult patients with surgical complaints will be referred to the Navan hospital or to Cavan General Hospital.
The HSE said all other services were unaffected and that the hospital remained on call for paediatrics, obstetrics and trauma.