Dáil rally over ‘chronic overcrowding’

Nurses protested against “appalling overcrowding” in the country’s hospitals outside the Dáil yesterday.

The protest was organised by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and was attended by around 150 nurse representatives from all over the country.

INMO general secretary, Liam Doran, said the protest was to make politicians more aware of what the health service needed to end overcrowding.

Mr Doran said more beds and more staff were needed to end overcrowding and there was no other way around it. He said the campaign would continue until the Government and the HSE made the right decision.

“We will be making it a general election issue,” he said.

The INMO’s latest trolley watch showed there were 359 patients waiting for a bed yesterday.

A week ago the number of people waiting on trolleys for full admission to a hospital ward hit a record high of 601.

Beaumont Hospital in Dublin had the highest number of patients waiting for a bed yesterday with 28 on trolleys and seven in wards.

There were 23 patients on trolleys and 11 in wards in University Hospital Limerick; 26 on trolleys and two on wards in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda and 18 on trolleys and eight on wards in University Hospital Galway.

Among the protesting nurses were Sinead Conway and Maura Craig who both work in Beaumont’s emergency department.

Maura said they had enough and wanted better for their patients.

“I don’t believe hospital management are at fault — the HSE and the Department of Health are to blame. They need to get their finger out and do something about this,” said Maura.

Sinead stressed nurses were not using the crisi to better their own situation. “This is not about more money or working less hours, it is about the patients,” she said.

Another protester was Paul Crisham who works in the emergency department in Galway University Hospital.

“Overcrowding is an ongoing problem in the hospital because it is coming under increasing pressure both from an expanding catchment area and an increasing local population,” said Paul.

Meanwhile, nurses in Naas, Co Meath, have become the latest to back a work-to-rule over overcrowding at the country’s hospitals.

INMO members at Naas General Hospital voted 97% in favour of the industrial action due to continued severe overcrowding.

It will begin on Wednesday, February 4, and follows planned work-to-rule action in Beaumont beginning on January 27. Nurses at Galway University Hospital and University Hospital Limerick, Ennis, Nenagh and Croom will stage work to rules on February 3.

The results of ballots in Mullingar and Drogheda are awaited.

The INMO has warned nurses will only engage in the direct clinical care of patients.

The INMO said trolley figures in Naas increased by 61% last year, compared with 2013, and resulted in patients being cared for on trolleys on corridors for the first time ever.

It described the practice as unacceptable and unsafe.

INMO industrial relations officer, Derek Reilly said they were gravely concerned for the wellbeing of patients who had to suffer the indignity of being nursed in a corridor for days at a time.

“The levels of overcrowding and staff shortages at Naas General Hospital are now the worst in the hospital’s history,” said Mr Reilly.

Clinical nurse manager at Naas, Theresa Dixon, who was at the protest said there was persistent overcrowding in the emergency department that was having a knock-on effect on the rest of the hospital.

“It is now absolutely impossible to deliver safe quality care, care that our patients deserve,” she said.