Judge criticises giving A&E priority to those on drugs

A DISTRICT judge yesterday described as “dispiriting” the way in which people under the influence of drugs were sometimes given priority in emergency departments ahead of victims of car accidents.

Judge David Riordan made the comments after hearing a guilty plea relating to a man who had taken drugs and had been admitted to hospital until the intoxication wore off.

“It is dispiriting to hear it, ongoing; there are waiting lists and difficulties in A&E departments that these are the kind of things clogging up the matters.

“A consultant at an A&E unit recently spoke out about this. Someone is picked up off the street and brought into A&E and basically given preferential treatment over perhaps someone in a car accident.”

Solicitor Emmet Boyle, on behalf of defendant Tim Kelleher, aged 24 from San Martino, Maryborough Ridge, Douglas, Co Cork, said he found it embarrassing to have the facts of January 15 last laid bare in court.

Mr Boyle said Kelleher was waiting for a place in a rehabilitation programme at Arbour House to address his difficulties.

Judge Riordan said the offences to which the accused pleaded guilty were punishable only by fines. He fined Kelleher €150 for having cannabis for his own use and the same amount for being intoxicated to such an extent that he was a danger to himself or others.

Inspector Bill Duane told Cork District Court that Garda Seán Fitzgerald encountered the defendant in the Maryborough Hill area at 10.30pm on January 15 in a highly intoxicated state — so much so that the garda sought an ambulance.

However Kelleher became aggressive when being put into the ambulance.

Insp Duane said the defendant’s eyes bulged out, his muscles were very tense and he attempted to push Garda Fitzgerald out of the way.