Patients waiting over 12 hours in A&E

A SCATHING report on Ireland’s hospital emergency departments by the State’s spending watchdog shows that waiting times rose last year despite assurances by Health Minister Mary Harney that services are improving.

A review of emergency departments by the Comptroller and Auditor General has found that 46% of patients had to wait 12 hours or more in early 2009 for a bed and that the waiting time for admission is unsatisfactory in most cases.

A comparison of the average waiting time for admission covering the first five months of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008 indicated that there had been an increase in the number of patients waiting 12 hours or more.