Nurses want ‘unsafe’ Beaumont A&E to go off-call

Nurses last night demanded that Beaumont Hospital emergency department go off-call due to the unsafe conditions for the mounting patient numbers there.

Nursing union, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said that by just after 7pm there were 75 patients in the department, 33 of whom were awaiting an in-patient bed.

“This number is set to rise further as the evening progresses,” a spokeswoman added. “Despite the emergency department being in crisis all week, the hospital only went off-call for two hours on Tuesday.