Hospital practice - The primary focus should be healthcare

THE story of the seriously ill teenage girl who was left on a trolley at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital because there was no porter available to push her into an operating theatre for urgent surgery to stop internal bleeding is an outrage and has frightening implications.

This is just the latest indication of something rotten in our health service.

Surely we should not have to wait until there is a tragic loss of life before this kind of lunacy is stamped out. The whole thing reflects badly on everyone concerned — management, staff, and unions.

On learning of the situation from the nursing staff, a member of management rushed to the girl’s aid and pushed her into theatre.

The person who took that initiative should be warmly commended, while those who stood idly by should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

There is something seriously amiss with the mentality of anyone who would place lines of demarcation above the life of a child.

Such people are not fit to work in any hospital, and the sooner this is recognised the better it will be for society as a whole.

This dangerous fiasco, on top of the light bulb controversy in Tralee General Hospital earlier this week, raises questions about whether people have forgotten that the primary focus of the health system should be healthcare.

It is not about work practices, budgetary restrictions, or hospital staffing.

We will tolerate the lack of common sense and human compassion in our hospitals at our own peril.