Patients on trolleys up almost 30% on last year, claim nurses

THE Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO) yesterday pointed out that the number of people on trolleys around the country in June was almost 30% higher than in the same month last year.

Speaking at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions biennial delegate conference in Tralee, INO deputy general secretary Dave Hughes revealed the increase in the number of people who were put on trolleys in a 19-day period in June 2009 (4,400) to a similar period in June 2008 (3,416).

He also revealed that over the past 12 months, 581 beds had been closed and six theatres.

Delegates working in the health service took to the platform at the ICTU conference to express their dismay at the state of the service.

INO president Shiela Dixon spoke of the impact of staff shortages and employment freezes in the health services.

“In some cases, particularly in care for the elderly, patients are not even got out of bed everyday. Some have to go back to bed early in the afternoon,” she said. “For nurses and midwives the delivery of quality care is being severely curtailed.”

Finbarr Murphy of IMO attacked the Government’s co-location initiative saying it was one of the most regrettable decisions ever taken and fostered a two-tier health service.

“This decision solidifies the system that enables those who can afford to pay to easily access a range of private health services while those who cannot afford to pay are obliged to avail of an under-resourced, under-funded public system,” he said. “We have no issue with the establishment and operation of private hospitals. However, we object strongly to the Government policy which favours the development of private hospitals over public hospitals. We object strongly to a Government policy that commits hundreds of millions of euro in taxpayers’ money to the development of private hospitals at the expense of investing in our public hospitals.”

He said it was beyond ironic and morally indefensible that a time when the Department of Health can find €400m in tax relief for the developers of private hospitals, it cannot find the money to keep the operating theatres of Crumlin Children’s Hospital open.

“How ironic it is that at a time when our most profitable private institutions face nationalisation and further bailout by taxpayers to the tune of tens of millions of euro and after a decade of economic boom, the legacy of our health service will be the development of a chain of private hospitals catering to those who need not depend on a systemically under-funded public health system,” he said.

Terry Casey general secretary of the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association pointed out that in 2008 Health Minister Mary Harney strongly supported outsourcing of cervical cancer screening to the US “with the resulting loss of a critical scientific skills set to the Irish health service”.

“The company that won that contract employed a well-known lobbying firm which was founded and headed up by the former secretary general of the Progressive Democrats, to help open doors in the corridors of power and influence our already well-disposed health minister,” he said.