‘Patients’ rights infringed when left on trolley’

Emergency doctors say patients left languishing on hospital trolleys have suffered an infringement of their human rights and have been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.

“Senior HSE management and the Department of Health must resolve this patient safety and human rights issue before their inactivity causes further patients serious harm or death,” the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) warned.

The IAEM’s statement was issued around the same time as Tallaght Hospital in Dublin was expressing regret that a woman aged 101 spent around 26 hours on a trolley in its emergency department earlier this week.