Overcrowding crisis at city hospital hits an all-time low

Date Published: {J}

BY CIARAN TIERNEY

The overcrowding crisis at University Hospital Galway (UHG) has hit a new low with latest figures showing that more than twice as many patients are being left on trolleys overnight compared to this time last year.

Latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) show that there were 544 patients left on trolleys in the Emergency Department in the past month, a 139% increase on the corresponding figure of 232 for August of last year.

Frontline staff numbers have decreased during the same 12 month period amid claims that patients on trolleys are being moved to wards in a bid to mask the severity of the problem at the Emergency Department (ED).

Last Thursday morning there were 48 patients sleeping overnight on trolleys at UHG, of whom 12 had been moved to the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) which was never designed to accommodate overnight patients.

“The bottom line is that we don’t have enough space and we don’t have enough nurses,” said INMO representative Ann Burke yesterday.“Some of the people left on trolleys last Thursday morning had been there for over 48 hours. Throughout last week, the MAU wasn’t being used for the purpose it was designed for. The idea was that the MAU would be used to provide quick access for GPs to refer suitable patients for a consultation.

“Because there were so many patients on trolleys there, staff were unable to do what they normally do in the MAU. It was never intended that the Unit would be used to accommodate overnight patients.”Nursing staff say it is ironic that patients on trolleys are being moved to the wards at a time when there are 24 closed beds throughout UHG – and a further 60 at Merlin Park Hospital.

Ms Burke said there were two staff nurses to look after 36 patients in the Emergency Department last week. Staff numbers have decreased at UHG at a time when there is unprecedented demand on resources.

The INMO Industrial Relations Officer, Noreen Muldoon, said the recruitment moratorium was causing chaos at the hospital while there was a “chronic shortage” of frontline staff.

For more. read this week's Connacht Sentinel.