No country for old men: 54-hour wait in UHL’s A&E shows sickness in our health system

UHL is staffed by amazingly dedicated people but is blighted by systems failure, a skewed definition of risk, and the abandonment of compassion, write Maria and Helena O’Dwyer

Maria and Helena O'Dwyer taking a break from looking after their father in UHL where Zone A of the A&E department has a maximum capacity of 22 patients. Last Wednesday night, there were 52 patients in there with just three nurses allocated.

The most unwell thing in Ireland is our health system. In 2022, when technical and medical advances can do much to improve our health and wellbeing outcomes, the systemic and repeated failures of our national health system have resulted in a care crisis. 

Daily updates on trolley tallies and waiting list numbers make for dismal reading — we all hear those numbers and secretly hope that our loved ones won’t ever be part of that count.