Staff did not recognise patient on trolley who had heart attack

A male patient who left his hospital trolley to buy a coffee in a garage across the road suffered a cardiac arrest and was brought back by ambulance to the same hospital where staff did not recognise him.

Describing the incident, Claire Mahon, president of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said it took 10 minutes before staff at the midlands hospital realised the man had already been in their care.

Ms Mahon said she mentioned the incident not as a criticism of staff but to highlight the serious impact continuing nursing shortages are having on the quality of patient care.

Another example related to a recent visit to a nursing home in Waterford where 34 patients are cared for by one nurse and two care assistants. Ms Mahon said because one staff member was out sick elderly residents were still in bed after noon.

Ms Mahon said the health service had lost 5,000 nurses over the past five years, including 850 last year, and nurses were “not having time to properly care for patients”, giving rise to “failure to rescue” situations, where a treatable complication goes unattended resulting in the patient’s death.

INMO general secretary Liam Doran said the nurse and midwife shortage was about to get more acute with Britain’s NHS actively seeking to recruit from overseas.

At a press conference to mark the opening of the INMO annual delegate conference (ADC) in Kilkenny yesterday, Mr Doran said a further 3,000 posts would be shed in the health service in the next 21 months as per government policy, but there was no plan as to how it would be done “other than whoever leaves will not be replaced” because of the ban on staff recruitment.

Delegates will today call for the establishment of a “Staff Watch” to monitor staffing levels and skill mix ratios in health care facilities around the country.

They will also call for additional bed capacity at a time when more than 2,000 hospital beds are closed and with just 2.2 acute care beds per 1,000 of population compared to 2.8 in Portugal, 3.3 in the Netherlands and 5.3 in Germany, Mr Doran said.

Delegates will also call on the union to kickstart a campaign next year seeking restoration of pay cuts and benefits lost under the Haddington Road Agreement which expires in 2016.