HSE intervenes in A&E row between nurses and consultant

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) in Limerick was yesterday forced to intervene in a bitter row between a top consultant and nurses at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital.

A&E consultant Dr Colman O’Leary blamed members of the Irish Nurses Organisation for a huge overcrowding problem in the department on Tuesday, when there were 36 patients left on trolleys.

Due to the trolley pile up, ambulance crews were unable to off-load patients.

As the row escalated yesterday, the INO’s industrial relations officer Mary Fogarty hit back and pointed the finger of blame at consultants.

The HSE, meanwhile, confirmed an independent chairperson had been appointed to conduct an urgent review.

A HSE spokesman said: “One of the questions that needs to be answered is why — if it was possible to have 34 of the 36 patients who were on trolleys at 8am in beds by 2.45pm — this was not done earlier.”

In an angry exchange, Ms Fogarty accused Dr O’Leary of having “his head in the sand”, in relation to his putting the blame for a trolley crisis at the A&E department on nurses.

Dr O’Leary had claimed the A&E became overcrowded as they were unable to move patients to general wards as the INO refused to implement a long-standing directive.

In a damning attack on nurses, Dr O’Leary said ‘interest groups’ would continue to cripple the hospital’s A&E department by protecting themselves rather than their patients.

He said: “There was a directive issued last year that all patients from emergency wards should be accommodated in general wards, but, for some reason they keep to themselves, the Irish Nurses Organisation object to it and it has not been implemented.

“Everybody needs to do the right thing rather than guard their own patch.”

Ambulance crews were tied up for long periods at the A&E on Tuesday as they had to remain on with patients they were unable to transfer to A&E trolleys as all were occupied by 36 patients at one stage.

Dr O’Leary said the ambulance service’s response ability was affected by the log jam at A&E.

INO industrial relations Ms Fogarty yesterday angrily rejected Dr O’Leary’s assessment of the cause of the situation.

She said the overcrowding at A&E resulted from the failure of Dr O’Leary’s consultant peers to discharge patients from the hospital last weekend.

Ms Fogarty said at no stage were INO members asked to take people into general wards on trolleys, adding it was HSE policy not do so.

She said: “If that is the only solution Dr O’Leary has, he has his head in the sand.”

The problem at A&E on Tuesday, she claimed, arose from patients not being discharged from the hospital over the weekend.

“That was the problem and we are now calling on the HSE to review discharge practices at the hospital,” said Ms Fogarty.

The INO representative further claimed that Dr O’Leary had not attended meetings at which patient escalation numbers are discussed.

She said: “If he attended those meetings and addressed the failure of his peers to discharge patients, we would have a better functioning hospital in Limerick.”

She described Dr O’Leary’s answer to overcrowding problems at A&E as “illogical”.

The problem arose form a systems failure with regard to the timely discharge of patients by consultants.

She said: “This is a serious problem.”