Mater A&E out of control, say nurses

THE Irish Nurses’ Organisation yesterday declared the A&E department at the Mater Hospital as “out of control”, on the same day when Health Minister Micheál Martin reported very significant progress had been made in tackling waiting times in nine target surgical areas.

Members of the INO working in the Mater Hospital said the situation had worsened in the previous 24 hours and the A&E department was unsafe and a risk to life.

Thirty-one patients awaited admission to the A&E yesterday, the INO said. “There is a culture of mismanagement of this problem in the city, but the situation in the Mater has now reached epic proportions,” said Patsy Doyle, INO Industrial Relations Officer.