Patients of 75 plus waiting over nine hours at Navan ED

The average waiting time in Our Lady's Hospital Navan's emergency department is from 9.6 to 10.5 hours.

The figures were released to Sinn Fein's Deputy David Cullinan in the Dail recently.

His party colleague, Deputy Johnny Guirke, has now called on the Minister for Health to urgently implement a Zero Tolerance Plan to end long emergency department waits.

The recent data shows that average emergency department wait times in Meath are 9.6 hours at the Navan Hospital Emergency Department for a patient aged 75 or older, and 10.5 hours for a person under 75.

“The government must take a zero-tolerance approach to hospital overcrowding and long emergency department waits.

“Patients have been suffering the torturous consequences of overcrowding for years, but these figures show that the problem has reached a new extreme.

“For April, average emergency department wait times in Meath are 9.6 hours at Navan Hospital Emergency Department for a patient aged 75 or older, and 10.5 hours for a person under 75.

“That is not the extreme end of the scale – that is the average, and it is both shocking and frightening for those patients and anyone looking on.

“The HSE target is all patients admitted within six hours, but only one in three patients is admitted in that timeframe.

“12 plus hour waits in emergency departments are unacceptable for any patient, but especially for elderly people who are often presenting with complex and multiple health needs, as well as mobility issues.

“Hospitals elsewhere in the state, such as Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda and in Cavan Hospital, have been very successful in reducing ED waits.

“All hospitals must act on each other’s successes and failures, and it is the minister’s responsibility to ensure that the HSE is implementing best practice in each and every hospital. We urgently need a zero-tolerance plan to end excessive emergency department waits.”