Frontline workers can save health service

RECENTLY I had occasion to visit a relative who had collapsed and was taken by ambulance to CUH.

He was treated with great care and respect by the overworked and harassed staff of the A&E department, and their caring and humour was second to none.

I felt I had to write and emphasise this, as they often get bad press, through no fault of their own. My disbelief in the conditions that these people work in, and the overcrowding that I witnessed was overwhelming. Elderly people sitting on chairs, as there were no more trolleys available. Even if they were available, there was no room for any more trolleys. People being examined and treated on corridors, even outside the A&E unit in what was the old ambulance bay, cold, draughty, and totally unsuitable for ill or injured people.

On the Monday afternoon I saw a lady approach two ladies outside and hand them something. She then turned around and went back into the hospital. I discovered that in the midst of all this bedlam, she was handing out cards explaining that it was a non-smoking area. I also learned that this woman worked in management, and spent a lot of her day doing just this. I spoke to a number of staff members about this, and learned that dozens of highly trained staff nurses now work in administration and management, and no longer work at what they were trained to do, and nurse patients. Two wards are closed or partially closed in CUH, due to lack of staff and the moratorium that is in place, and yet these nurses aren’t being redeployed, doing what they are trained to do, instead, they chase smokers around car parks, attend meetings, and perform “audits”, putting more pressure on overstretched staff in dangerously overcrowded areas.

Brian Cowen recently opened the new cardiac and renal building in the CUH, a state-of-the-art facility, but he neglected to mention the number of beds that would be closed in the main hospital when it opened. Over-management, mismanagement, and the self-importance of the bloated administration department is the reason for the debacle our health service has become. The whole system needs to be shaken up. Perhaps a good place to start would be by asking the staff on the ground what changes could be made for patient care and safety. Hopefully, a new government, whenever it comes, will turn the HSE upside down and repair the damage that years of apathy has inflicted.

M O’Mahony

Bishopstown

Cork