‘Elderly ladies on trolleys had dignity taken away in A&E’

The A&E at University Hospital Limerick has been described as a ‘cattle mart’ where elderly female patients on trolleys are being robbed of their dignity.

That is according to a member of the HSE West Forum, Independent councillor PJ Ryan, who provided a witness account of what he called the ‘absolute chaos’ at the A&E last Thursday.

Mr Ryan’s time at the A&E with his son Tómas, who had dislocated his shoulder in a hurling match, coincided with part of the 25 hours spent at the A&E by a 101-year-old Co Clare woman.

Mr Ryan said: “The first thing we saw when we went in was an electronic sign telling us that it would take six hours to see a doctor.”

READ MORE: 101-year-old left on trolley for 25 hours .

“First of all, we had to wait 35 minutes to get to the reception counter and all of the time my son was in excruciating pain, but bad and all as he was, there was much worse there. There were people on trolleys everywhere.”

“I met a woman there who was on a trolley for her second day. I met another man who was on a trolley, but was afraid to leave it to go to the toilet in case he lost the trolley.

“There were lots of elderly ladies on trolleys and their dignity was just taken away with their surroundings. It was bedlam there,” he said.

“I have to say that the staff were excellent but the volume of people going through the A&E there makes their job impossible,” he said.

Mr Ryan said he arrived at the A&E at 7.45pm and “we were able to leave by 12.30am after my son was treated, so we did very well, but he was in a lot of pain at the time”.

Mr Ryan said that the reopening of the 24-hour A&E at Ennis must be considered to relieve the pressure.

Earlier, the clinical director of the UL Hospitals group, John Kennedy said that he would like to apologise to the 101-year-old woman that was left lying on a trolley for 25 hours at an A&E unit.

On Monday, the plight of the Co Clare woman at the University Hospital Limerick emergency department was described as ‘inhumane’ and ‘disgraceful’ by the industrial relations officer with the Irish Midwives and Nurses Organisation Mary Fogarty.

Ms Fogarty said that the case also raises questions around the management of patients that attend that A&E there.

READ MORE: 101-year-old left on trolley for 25 hours .