INO: Cork A&E lies idle as 42 patients wait on trolleys

Staff at Munster’s largest acute hospital were struggling to find beds for more than 30 patients lying on trolleys yesterday, according to the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO).

The emergency department at Cork University Hospital (CUH) has been extremely busy over the past 36 hours with 336 people attending and 122 patients requiring admission since midnight last Sunday.

According to figures released by the INO, there were 33 people on trolleys yesterday at CUH and a further nine at the Mercy University Hospital, bringing the number to 42.

Industrial relations officer with the INO Patsy Doyle said there was currently a shortfall of 60 nurses at CUH.

“We are trying to get these posts filled but as soon as we get one filled another leaves. Now that CUH has been designated as a ‘centre of excellence’ all roads are leading to the hospital, and we are inundated with patients — and yet staff shortages remain chronic,” she said.

Meanwhile ,a new A&E department at the Mercy has been lying idle for 14 months. The fate of the €5m facility still hangs in the balance as talks continue between the Health Service Executive (HSE), management and the unions.

Management had requested funding for 24 additional staff to complement the existing staff, at a cost of €1.5m, to man the new facility which is three times the size of the existing unit.

However, the HSE would not concede to their demands and, despite being named as having one of the worst A&Es in the country in a HSE taskforce report last year, the Mercy has been unable to open its new facility for more than a year.

The chief executive of the hospital, Pat Madden, who has already been forced to close a 31-bed ward this year because of budgetary constraints, announced last month that the emergency department would open on a 24-hour basis in July.

Following this announcement, intensive talks got underway between management and the HSE. Management entered into discussions with the unions some weeks ago in a bid to enable a 24-hour emergency service to continue at the hospital when the facility opens.

It remains to be seen whether unions will agree to the staffing numbers being offered by management.

Tony McNamara, general manager of the CUH group, said: “The reasons for the increased attendances at the emergency department seem to indicate an increased level of complex and mixed emergency admissions.

“Due to the extremely high numbers of emergency patients waiting for admission it is regrettable that some people may spend time on a trolley. At 8am yesterday 25 patients had completed their treatment in the emergency department and their clinicians had identified a need to admit these patients to a bed in CUH, but unfortunately no bed was available. I wish to confirm that all these patients have since been transferred to a bed.”

Article courtesy of the Evening Echo newspaper.