Get patients off trolleys, demand Dáil protesters

“MARY, get my granny off the trolley.”

That was the message on one of the colourful posters carried yesterday by two of Kathleen Byrne’s grandchildren outside the Dáil yesterday.

Jennifer, nine, and Alison, 14, joined more than 100 people who took to the streets to highlight the plight of patients forced to spend between three and six days on trolleys waiting for a hospital bed.

Pauline Hazel watched her children as they held their posters up for everyone to see. “It is a very sad day that it has come to this,” she said.

Mrs Byrne’s family, who organised the protest, said they were shocked by the awful conditions endured by their 72-year-old mother as she waited for a bed in the Mater Hospital’s accident and emergency department.

The family intends suing the State for a second time because of the difficulty in getting treatment for their mother, who was on a trolley for four days before a bed was found for her yesterday afternoon.

Daughter Janette Byrne took the Department of Health to the court in 2001 to force the Government to provide cancer treatment.

One of the protesters, Deirdre Stringer, said her 84-year-old mother, May Mulreany, had also been on a trolley in the Mater since last Saturday. The seriously ill pensioner has remained on a trolley in an open area. “We are minding her around the clock, almost as much to protect her as to care for her,” said Deirdre.

“My mother raised nine children and worked all her life. She is still paying tax on her pension and getting nothing for it,” she said.

Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney said she was giving priority to the problem of overcrowding in A & Es but she said it was not a problem that could be sorted overnight.

A spokesperson for the Mater Hospital said they needed 100 extra beds to reduce the pressure on the A & E department - one of the busiest in the country.

He said the hospital’s chief executive had since been told by the Department of Health to include the additional beds in the new hospital plan. “The beds are needed now, not three to four years down the line,” the spokesperson said.

According to international best practise, the hospital should be operating at around 85% of its total capacity and not at 97% as it is at present. “We are in the red zone and have nothing to cope with a surge in demand for beds,” he said.

General secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation, Liam Doran said lethargy and bureaucracy was preventing acute hospitals from implementing management systems to address overcrowding in A & E departments.

The INO, which supported yesterday’s protest, recently presented Ms Harney with a list of initiatives needed to address overcrowding in A&E wards.

“Some of the initiatives detailed do not involve significant cost but do require lateral thinking and a move away from the dominance of the medical model,” said Mr Doran.