Consultant likens emergency departments to ‘human landfill site’

An outspoken emergency medicine consultant has described working in an emergency department (ED) as “a bit like working in a human landfill site” where waiting rooms are increasingly like “refugee camps”.

Chris Luke said that EDs are “not just toxic and unpleasant” but “actually dangerous for many, many people”.

Dr Luke, who works at both the Mercy University Hospital and Cork University Hospital, said that an analysis of patient outcomes figures over the past five or ten years showed “dozens of people die in our EDs throughout the year because of delays in treatment, because of difficulties getting access to imaging and interventions and so on, not to mention beds”.