59 patients on trolleys at Cork hospital

ONE of the country’s largest hospitals is facing a fresh emergency department crisis after a shocking 59 people were left waiting on trolleys yesterday — some of whom had been there since Thursday.

Just a week after the facility’s new multi-million euro acute medical unit (AMU) was finally opened, Cork University Hospital (CUH) is facing trolley-count numbers in excess of the winter crisis.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said 59 patients were waiting on trolleys in the hospital’s overcrowded emergency department.

This figure is more than a seventh of the entire national rate for the day and almost 20 people higher than the next highest trolley count, at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin.

The HSE has claimed the real CUH figure was 35. However, the Irish Examiner has independently confirmed the Cork crisis is so acute that:

* One elderly patient was still on a trolley yesterday afternoon despite being admitted on Thursday.

* Patients arriving at the hospital have been treated on ambulance stretchers because of overcrowding.

* GP referrals and any other non-urgent emergency department admissions are effectively being blocked due to the crisis.

In addition, the HSE was unable to confirm whether three ambulances from Cork city and a fourth from Fermoy were unable to leave the facility for three hours on Sunday afternoon as they could not admit their patients.

As a result, it has been claimed that during this time the nearest ambulance available to Cork city was based in Macroom.

“There’s not even a curtain around him. I’ve had to wash him in public, he’s had to go to the bathroom in public,” said the relative of one patient, a man in his 50s who had been on a trolley for 24 hours, despite arriving with a serious back problem.

The trolley count level, an issue Health Minister Mary Harney said last Thursday would be “unacceptable” if it returned to winter rates, comes just a week after the HSE opened a new €1.2 million AMU facility at CUH to address emergency department overcrowding.

Seven days ago health officials insisted the move would ensure patients are seen quickly. Emergency medicine consultant Dr Chris Luke said the current situation made a mockery of the claim.

“The idea that an AMU is the panacea for this is simply untrue. Beaumont in Dublin has an AMU and recently it’s had 45 people on trolleys,” he said.

A HSE spokesperson said a number of steps are being taken to address the CUH issue, including the postponement of non-urgent surgeries, the opening of additional beds, and increased home supports to prevent the need for a hospital admission.