Doctor: I had a duty to identify poor care

The consultant in the eye of the storm over the trolley wait controversy said he was duty-bound to highlight a “gross governance failure”.

Dr James Gray, a consultant in emergency medicine at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin, highlighted the case of a 91-year-old man who spent 29 hours on a trolley .

Just days later it emerged that a 93-year-old woman also spent 29 hours on a hospital trolley at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

Beaumont said it acknowledged and regretted the difficult conditions experienced by patients and staff at its emergency department.

Referring to the elderly woman who finally got a bed on Thursday evening, the hospital said a review of the circumstances of her case was being carried out.

Age Action said Health Minister Leo Varadkar had promised earlier this year there would be “zero tolerance” of patients requiring hospital admission waiting in emergency departments for more than 24 hours.

In just one week last June there were two separate cases of 101-year-old women being kept on trolleys for more than 24 hours, said Age Action’s head of advocacy and communications, Justin Moran.

“No one should be waiting 24 hours for a bed but an emergency department is absolutely no place for an older person, often presenting with multiple medical problems, to be forced to wait for medical treatment,” he said.

Dr Gray, speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday, said criticism of his memo detailing the case of the 91-year-old patient he was concerned about, was a “distraction” from the real crisis.

He said it was unfortunate that the widely circulated memo had got into the public domain but he stood over it.

“I have a duty of care to patients and when I see gross governance failure going on, on the scale I am witnessing, I have a duty to do that. In actual fact, not to do so would be a very serious matter.”

The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine said Dr Gray should be commended for writing to the hospital’s chief executive highlighting the plight of the elderly patient.

“We say this to Tallaght Hospital, the HSE and the politicians: heed the message; don’t shoot the messenger,” the IAEM said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health has warned that pressure on emergency departments could impact on the hospitals’ ability to manage waiting times for non-essential surgery.

It said latest National Treatment Purchase Fund figures continued to show improvements but it was impossible to predict the impact of emergency department escalating policies to safely manage demand and capacity.

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