Hospital staff see no change in A&E crisis

IT is now more than a year since the Tánaiste’s €70 million 10-point A&E plan came into operation, but there are huge divisions among hospital staff as to whether it is making any difference to A&E patients.

Consultants, nurses and opposition politicians have all disregarded the Health Service Executive’s revelations that trolley figures fell by 14% nationally last year and by 20% in Dublin - where the problem is clearly worse.

In contrast, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association contends that trolley figures at Beaumont increased by 30% between April 2004 and April 2005 and that Tallaght Hospital’s number of ‘trolley days’ has increased from 7,400 to 9,000 per year. Our figures show an average of 175 on trollies every day last year.

INO Secretary General Liam Doran said there is no evidence on the ground that trolley figures are dropping and that in October and November last year, numbers were particularly high.

“The HSE are only fooling themselves. The evidence isn’t there to back up their assertions. Just look at last week where we had 422 people on trolleys at A&E departments on Tuesday. The hospitals still can’t cope,” he said.

Patients Together spokeswoman and founder, Janette Byrne described the A&E crisis as “being like Groundhog Day”.

“To have one seriously sick person on a trolley is terrible but to have 175 is digusting. There is no reduction in the number of calls we’re getting. We’re still hearing just as many terrible stories from patients and families,” she said.

April is the worst month to find yourself at an Irish A&E as an average of 133 were on trollies in Dublin hospitals, according to the HSE, while another 80 were without hospital beds in the region. In contrast, the INO supplies a much higher figure, with 166 on trollies in Dublin and 115 outside the capital.

The INO began doing its Trolley Watch last February and it led to a much more focused coverage of the country’s A&E crisis. Two months later, the HSE began a daily trolley count.

The annual averages were collated using both sets of figures from April to December. The INO does its count in the morning while the HSE calculates in the afternoon.

Fine Gael spokesman on health, Deputy Liam Twomey, accused the Government of not spending the €70 million pledged to tackle the A&E crisis.

“There is no sign of the second scanner in Beaumont and the planned number of patients aren’t being transferred from acute to long-stay beds. I think the Department has made an art form out of moving money around. I am also convinced that home help hours have been cut and this does not support elderly people in the community.

“Furthermore, the 10-point plan was only to be a short-term plan, but where is the medium to long-term plan as that would involve beds?” he said.

IHCA Secretary General, Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said none of their A&E consultants have noticed an improvement in A&E figures over the past year and that using afternoon figures was “advantageous.”

“Using December to compare is not fair as it is traditionally a quiet month as elective surgery is slowed down and so there are more beds in the hospital.

“Our bottom line, and it has been the same for years, is that there aren’t enough beds and every school of thought except that of Professor Brendan Drumm thinks this. The A&E crisis will continue unabated until something is done about the main problem,” he said.