A&E crisis has 'become a farce'

THE crisis in the A&E departments of hospitals has descended into farce, according to the Irish Nurses Organisation.

An INO spokesperson said yesterday that hospital managements are increasingly denying the extent of the problem and some hospitals are withholding figures in relation to the numbers of patients on trolleys every day.

The organisation has begun to release daily figures which show that an average of 200 patients are left lying on hospital trolleys waiting for beds.

Denying suggestions that the organisation was exaggerating the figures, INO General Secretary, Liam Doran said: "This hopeless act of despair, which sees hospital managements seeking to protect their delicate egos rather than deal with the problem, appears to base its argument upon the fact that the INO does its count, at roughly 9am each morning, which is, according to them, the wrong time as the situation will be at its worst.

"The behaviour of some hospital managements, with regard to this problem, is now reaching the level of farce and is, more importantly, grossly insulting to the patients, who find themselves on trolleys, their families and the nursing staff who are struggling to care for them.

"It is patients and nurses who experience this problem at all hours during the day but obviously management, who appear to believe the day only begins at 9.30am to 10.00am each morning, Monday to Friday, cannot comprehend the pressure on the system that is ever present.

"A patient who finds him or herself on a trolley, awaiting a hospital bed, at 11.00 at night, 5.00 in the morning or 10.00 in the morning is being let down by the system, deprived of their dignity and being cared for in an inappropriate care setting. This is the only issue which should be of concern to hospital management.

The INO said it would continue to release the trolley count figures on a daily basis and identify hospitals that refuse to disclose the level of overcrowding.