No joy at A&E talks with TD
Janette Byrne of Patients Together said it met the Tánaiste yesterday to highlight the horrendous conditions patients endure in busy A & E departments.
“We’re not willing to put up with it. It can’t go on. People are suffering,” she said, on a day when 157 patients were lying on trolleys in over-stretched A&Es throughout the country.
The group was formed last month when Ms Byrne’s elderly mother, Kathleen Byrne, was kept on a trolley for almost four days in Dublin’s Mater Hospital.
The group asked Ms Harney to set a target time of a maximum of four hours for anyone to be left on a trolley. They also asked for an independent health and safety audit of all A&E departments in the State. But Ms Harney told them the improvements needed would take time.
“People on trolleys don’t have time and the conditions they are enduring are horrendous. Nobody wants to end up like that. Animals are treated better,” said Ms Byrne.
The group, which has around 500 members, also questioned what would happen in the event of a major disaster when all A&E departments are already at full capacity.
The Tánaiste said she planned to make improvements within the next two months and would meet the campaign group again at the end of that period.
She also agreed to its request to visit the A&E department of Dublin’s Mater Hospital and said hygiene issues raised by the group would be tackled immediately.
Patients Together, which is backed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, SIPTU, the Irish Nurses Organisation and IMPACT, is planning another protest in Dublin on Saturday week to highlight the crisis.
The group’s next protest will be on Saturday November 13 at 2.30pm at the Garden of Remembrance, ending at the Dáil.
Ms Byrne said anyone was welcome but political banners and posters that overshadowed their last march were not.
“We are just a group of ordinary people. Everyone else has had their shot at this. It’s our turn now.”
Labour’s Joe Costello said his party would be staging another protest outside the Mater Hospital at lunchtime today.
