A&Es face horror Hallowe’en injuries

NURSES’ representatives are forecasting severe overcrowding problems at accident and emergency units will be exacerbated by bonfire-related injuries over the Hallowe’en weekend.

Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) industrial relations director Dave Hughes said with A&E units already creaking at the seams, it was expecting “a bad few days” ahead.

“We are concerned from a public safety point of view, and we would urge people to be vigilant about bonfires. The A&Es, particularly in the Dublin area, are under serious pressure as it is.”

Hughes said the bin dispute, which meant some householders had a build-up of uncollected refuse, could mean more bonfires than usual, increasing the risk of fire-related injuries.

A number of housing estates in the Dublin 15 area of Fingal are awaiting the resumption of waste collection, according to a spokesperson in Fingal County Council’s Environment section.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said chaotic scenes at A&Es were now a frequent weekend occurrence.

“Unfortunately, at this stage, every weekend is a bad one. Overcrowding is endemic now from Thursday to Sunday at most of our A&Es,” he said.

“More than 200 beds are closed in the Dublin area. The situation going into Hallowe’en and the winter months is very bleak. The public face longer and longer delays, and our members are working in ongoing intolerable conditions.”

Cork University Hospital A&E chief Dr Stephen Cusack warned members of the public to be careful around fires.

“Kids shouldn’t be left unsupervised, and adults should remember that fireworks are illegal. In the past, we haven’t seen too many extra problems around Hallowe’en, and we would like it to stay that way.”

However, Dr Cusack said the problem of overcrowding at the A&E unit persisted. “It is the usual situation that persists in every emergency department, and that we are all now familiar with.

"We are just about coping. We are experiencing chronic overcrowding at the moment, and that has been ongoing for many months. We have patients on trolleys all of the time.”

A spokeswoman for the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) said they would be working with the Dublin hospitals and monitoring activity over the weekend.

“We would not discourage genuine emergencies from attending, but we would always tell people that they are in for a wait. If it is not an emergency, it could be faster to go to your GP,” the spokeswoman said.