DOCTORS AT University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) have told management that overcrowding in the hospital’s AE unit could be contributing to the deaths of up to 20 patients a year, more than one every month.
A letter sent earlier this month states that overcrowding in the unit has worsened significantly this year. It says the number of patients who had to overnight on trolleys in AE last month was 444, up 136 per cent on the same period last year when 188 patients had to do so.
“There is no doubt that this continued overcrowding in the emergency department is adversely affecting patient care. Recent independent research from Australia suggests that this persistent overcrowding is resulting in anywhere between 10 to 20 unnecessary deaths per year for a population the size of Galway,” the letter says.
“The implication that there are one or more unnecessary deaths per month in Galway University Hospital as a result of the persistent overcrowding is a very worrying one,” it adds.
It goes on to say staff in the hospital’s emergency department are continually highlighting the risks associated with overcrowding. However there seemed to be “no meaningful plan to address this issue, which is now spiralling out of control”.
It continues: “By the end of April 2008 there were 1,283 patients on trolleys at 9am waiting for a bed, compared to 891 patients for the same period in 2007, an increase of 44 per cent.”
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly, who obtained the letter, noted the Galway hospital was one of the eight centres of excellence for cancer care chosen by the Government. He said the figures showed it was already unable to cope with the patients it had to deal with without having to deal with cancer patients from Mayo and Sligo who will have to travel to Galway for cancer diagnosis and surgery under the State’s new cancer control plan.
“It’s grossly unfair to the people of Mayo and Sligo as well as to the people of Galway,” he said.
He questioned why the State was planning to interfere with the model of care already in place for cancer patients in Sligo and Mayo before something better was put in place in Galway first for them.
Dr Reilly also claimed that more than one year on from the publication of the HSE’s AE taskforce report, things were also no better in the emergency department of other large hospitals like Beaumont in Dublin. He said 908 patients had to stay overnight in AE in Beaumont last month compared to 367 in April last year. However this figure was disputed by a spokesman for Beaumont Hospital.
The spokesman said the figure for the number of people awaiting admission to the hospital by 8am from the emergency department during April 2008 was 533.