Hospital A&E could close indefinitely
The A&E department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda could close indefinitely from the end of this week, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) last night warned.
The threat came after a work-to-rule which began at the unit yesterday and a lunchtime protest which left 40 accident and emergency patients without their usual nursing care.
The hospital was criticised by nursing bosses for not having a back-up plan and no contingency measures while staff left the unit for the protest. Industrial relations officer for the region, Patsy Doyle, said nurses didn't mind braving the rain and high winds over lunchtime, such was the chaos inside the unit.
"This protest will go on and on, until our basic needs are addressed. We're tired of the space constraints, having no dedicated child treatment facility and appalling nurse staffing levels. Management were informed of this protest, yet they had no contingency plan in place to keep the unit up and running.
"There are 45 patients in the A&E at present and there is no meet-and-greet system while our protest continues. Up to 40 of these are waiting for beds, a further 15 are being treated," said Ms Doyle.
The nurses want better resources or they will close the unit indefinitely, she warned. A decision on an escalation of action will be taken tomorrow(ok). If nurses close the A&E, accident and emergency patients will have to transfer to either Dundalk or Navan, 20 miles away.
Just five nurses work the day shift at the Drogheda A&E. Four are on the night-time rota. The department caters for as many as 35,000 people every year.
A third of those seen are children under 12. However, they have to be treated in shared facilities with adults. It is not unusual for patients with head injuries to have to wait over two hours, nurses say, and, all too often, patients have to overnight on trolleys in the A&E department.
Meanwhile, the INO nationally has suspended its on-call row and will ballot its theatre nurse members on new proposals which could end the rolling regional disputes in hospitals.
Under the proposals, the on-call rate would increase significantly and the fee per operation, which was a once-off payment, would be increased in line with the length of time the call-out entails.
