Madam, – The stated figure (Home News, January 5th) of 511 patients occupying emergency room trolleys on the previous day (“the highest since records began”) is misleading.
This number reflects only the relatively fortunate, who, after being assessed and deemed in need of admission are not forced to spend further hours sitting on wooden chairs or dipping in and out of momentarily unoccupied examination rooms. And this after the inevitable wait of many hours before being seen in the first place.
It also excludes the significant number who would likely have been admitted but understandably found the initial wait to be seen intolerable.
As a doctor working in a busy Dublin emergency department I have seen a total of three cases of influenza in the past month. Those who can accept that these circumstances are due to seasonal influenza will presumably be similarly happy to attribute the country’s current difficulties to the untimely collapse of Lehman Brothers, etc. – Yours, etc,