Drunk patient who discharged himself from CUH later found unconscious outside A&E

There were a number of alcohol-related incidents recorded at Cork University Hospital over the four-day weekend that followed St Patrick’s Day this year. Picture: Clare Keogh/Provision

A patient who discharged himself from Cork University Hospital (CUH)against medical advice after drinking on St Patrick’s Day was discovered unconscious a short time later in the set-down area outside the emergency department.

The man still had a cannula and a blood pressure cuff on his hand, and ECG leads for monitoring his heart were still attached to his chest when he was found lying on the ground by hospital staff.

An incident report compiled by security officers who attended the scene noted that the patient was in possession of an empty bottle, the contents of which he had consumed in the short time since leaving the hospital.

The man was “picked up off the ground” by three security officers and moved to a bus stop opposite the emergency department setdown area, where the cannula, ECG leads and blood pressure cuff were removed, according to the report.

The incident occurred at around 1.30am on March 18, after the patient had presented at the hospital some hours earlier on St Patrick’s Day.

The security report noted that he “left via taxi some time later” after the monitoring equipment had been removed.

Staff verbally abused and threatened

It was not the only alcohol-related incident recorded at CUH that night; two hours earlier, staff had been verbally abused and threatened by a patient who arrived by ambulance following an assault in the city centre.

He refused to wear a face mask upon arrival in the ambulance triage area, and became aggressive towards paramedics when they asked him to stop photographing and videoing them.

Five security officers were involved in removing the man from the triage area and bringing him to the ambulance bay, where “the aggression and the attempt to photograph and video continued”, according to the incident report.

Gardaí were called and instructed the man to leave the grounds of the hospital.

Another incident occurred in the early hours of March 19 — on the Saturday of the four-day weekend that followed St Patrick’s Day this year — when a male patient again had issues wearing a face mask.

“Male had blood on his hand and shirt that he sustained from a broken glass earlier in the night,” a security officer wrote in his report. “[He] was given a mask as he had none with him.

“The care assistant asked him to fix the mask as he wore it incorrectly.” 

Male continued to be unhelpful and demanded that [the care assistant] fix his mask for him.

A woman who had accompanied the patient helped him with his mask, but he continued to protest and was “verbally aggressive about the protocol in place”.

“He then threw his old mask on the floor,” the security officer wrote. “I then asked him to pick it up and place it in the bin, and I was called an ‘asshole’.” 

The patient subsequently “stormed off out the door” without receiving treatment, saying that he “wasn’t putting up with this s**t”.

Details of the incidents were contained in records released by CUH under the Freedom of Information Act. 

A spokesperson for the hospital did not respond when contacted for comment.