Elderly people 'getting lost' in health system 'that is not fit for purpose'

Elderly people are getting lost in a health system that is not fit for purpose, says Bernadette Walshe, whose elderly father begged for a bed for his wife at Cork University Hospital.

Ms Walshe said she highlighted her mother's case in the media because she wants the next government, whatever form it takes, to restructure hospital emergency departments in the Cork region.

“It is not just about my mother, it is about all of the elderly people who are getting lost in a system that is not fit for purpose,” she said.

Her mother, who will celebrate her 89th birthday next month, was taken to CUH last Friday evening because it was thought she had suffered a stroke.

She was content to be treated in a cubicle in the ED but became upset on Sunday evening when an emergency came in and she was moved into the hallway.

Her 90-year-old father, who spent more than 20 hours on a trolley in a corridor in the hospital last year, pleaded with staff to give his wife a bed.

“The saddest part was seeing my father, who is nearly 91, begging and pleading at the desk, asking for my mother to get a bed.”

At around midnight on Sunday, the hospital opened a five-bed day ward and Ms Walshe's mother was taken there.

Ms Walshe said elderly people get very disorientated in EDs and many have nobody to hold their hand.

“My mother was wailing and crying and trying to get out of bed because she did not know where she was."

Her mother, a former staff nurse and union representative, is being treated in CUH for a respiratory infection.

"She is hopefully on the road to recovery but it is going to be a long road with mum."

Ms Walsh said people should challenge their newly elected TDs on the hospital trolley crisis.

She believes the problem can be solved if there is political willpower to increase beds and staff.

“We have voted for change; now the politicians need to act. There has to be accountability, otherwise, the people will be failed again by the next government. Now is the time to lobby our politicians. Let's see what they can do now."

A spokesperson for CUH said the hospital did not comment on individual patients.

“At CUH the decision to open additional beds is dependent on the availability of staff. This is reviewed by hospital management on an ongoing basis,” she said.

Meanwhile, there were 492 admitted patients waiting for beds in the country's acute hospitals on Wednesday, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

University Hospital Limerick was the worst-affected with 75 patients waiting in the ED and on wards; CUH had 52 and University Hospital Galway had 30.