Overcrowding at Drogheda A&E ‘putting lives at risk’...

Dangerous overcrowding at the Emergency Dept at Drogheda Hospital is putting patients lives at risk, according to stressed staff at the hospital.

As ambulances wait outside, patients are being treated on chairs, trolleys or in the back of ambulances, as overworked staff struggle to find trolleys or spaces to put them.

Ambulances waiting outside, sometimes for up to four hours because there is nowhere for their patients to go, leads to a shortage of ambulance to respond to emergency calls.

At one point last Tuesday, there were 13 ambulances waiting outside the ED as paramedics waited with their patients.

“It was chaotic all last week. It always is. We were treating elderly patients on chairs, in the back of ambulances, on trolleys. We are overwhelmed all the time. Ambulances bypassing Navan hospital for Drogheda is one of the reasons for this, “ said one stressed member of the ED staff.

“It is dangerous. We have seen tragic cases in Limerick hospital where patients have died because the ED couldn't cope. People are blaming those cases on the closure of Nenagh hospital, but the same thing could happen here with the closure of the Navan ED,” she warned.

“We aren't able to cope. We don't have the resources, there is a recruitment embargo. We don't have the nursing staff we need. Everyone is exhausted. Some days we get no breaks, we eat really quickly and there have been 13 hour shifts where I have gone to the loo twice.

“The overcrowding is so dangerous, so undignified. We are under serious pressure from management to get the patients out as quickly as possible. The pressure we are under is horrendous. It is relentless.”

“How can you treat people with compassion in those circumstances, treating patients on trolleys in corridors is unsafe.

“People get fed up waiting and they or their families get angry. We are verbally abused at least once or twice a night.

“I dread to think what it will be like this coming winter during flu season. Even now there are no beds. They open up day wards just to get people out of the ED.

“Ambulances having to wait outside is very dangerous. If somebody has a heart attack in Trim, they could be long dead if all the ambulances are parked up outside the hospital with patients in them.”

According to INMO Trolley Watch, 29 patients were on trolleys at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, yesterday (Monday) morning. There were five on trolleys in Navan, nine in Cavan and five in Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.

Cllr Eddie Fennessy said one ambulance sitting outside a hospital unable to admit a patient is a concern.

“The sight of 13 ambulances outside Drogheda Hospital is a clear indication that the HSE's plan isn't working.

“The centralisation of regional A&E services at Drogheda is dangerous. They don't have the capacity to deal with the volume of care expected of them.

“It also highlights the burden placed on under staffed hospitals, and the risks this poses to patient safety. The Health Minister needs to act before lives are lost by patients suffering in car parks across this state,” he said.

The HSE and the Royal College of Surgeons Hospital Group were approached for comment.