We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Updated 10.40am
NURSES AT ONE of the busiest hospitals in the country are today going to serve notice of industrial action.
Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation at the hospital voted 100% in favour of work-to-rule action due to the persistent overcrowding and under staffing at the hospital.
Work-to-rule action is due to take place at Beaumont Hospital on 27 January.
Nurses will hold lunchtime protest on Friday, 9 January, from 1-2pm.
INMO
Speaking to TheJournal.ie this morning, a spokesperson for Beaumont’s INMO members said members voted unanimously for action last night, and that the industrial notice was being served today due to the ongoing chronic overcrowding issues at the hospital, which she said is unsafe for both patients and staff.
She said the situation in the hospital is worse than yesterday.
“This morning there are 35 people on trolleys in the department this morning. These people are mainly elderly and are on trolleys and chairs waiting to be treated. Some people are in their 80s and 90s in the trolley waiting area,” she said.
She added that the INMO had highlighted the risks to management for a long time now.
The hospital has now cancelled all planned surgery for the week except for cancer cases.
Deplorable
The situation is deplorable and unmanageable.
The INMO said the HSE knew about the ballot but no proposals had been put forward.
The spokesperson added that it is available for “constructive discussions” but that unless “concrete, radical initiatives” are implemented, INMO members would be pressing on with their industrial action, which they said would be ongoing from 27 January.
Yesterday the INMO warned that trolley figures were dangerously high, with 563 people on beds, with over 50 people on trolleys in one hospital alone, in Our Lady’s of Lourdes Hospital, the highest in the country.
This morning there are over 80 patients on trolleys in Our Lady’s of Lourdes Hospital, with over 40 in the emergency department, with some of these being very young children.
The INMO warned that trolley numbers had reached almost record levels.
While the HSE apologised, the INMO said it was “truly shocking”.
Speaking of RTÉ’s Morning Ireland Consultant at Sligo General Hospital and chairperson of the Association of Emergency Medicine, Fergal Hickey said that there is a number of reasons for the overcrowding, which include a shortage of beds and due to the fact 800 people are due to be discharged. He also said the Christmas period could be a factor.
Dr Tony O’Connell, the man due to head the new task force on Ireland’s emergency department resigned yesterday and is due to return to Australia.
HSE’s National Director of Acute Hospitals appeared on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland earlier and was asked eight times whether hospitals are safe.
She said that the overcrowding issues “cannot be resolved overnight” adding that they were working with all the hospital on an hourly basis.
“Safety is our priority,” she said.
First published 07.25am
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Everyday we hear country is is on the up . Economy up. Shameful that government forgets there is more to the country than just economy and banks. This is the result.
Yes that’s a great comment for green thumbs. It has absolutely no basis in reality though. The HSE budget is €16 billion and it overspends. That’s a higher proportion of our national wealth than at any time in the past and one of the highest in Europe. There are big problems in health, but simply throwing money at them doesn’t work, never worked and never will work.
Take the Beaumont. The standard of care there is excellent – when you get a bed. There is no shortage of beds. The problem is that there are people in them who don’t need them, because they can’t go anywhere else. We have little in intermediate care and the public health nursing system, which is superb at what it does, isn’t designed for these kinds of cases.
These things are fixable, but the govt is right to say it can’t happen overnight. First we need to realise that hospitals aren’t the beginning and end of the health system, and to have a bit less shouting and more thinking about what a good system would look like.
The reason for the green thumbs is because its the truth and the reality is there for all to see. But you keep defending this government all you want.
@Emily, yes things are fixable, but they’re only fixable if they actually want to fix the problem, and simply throwing money isn’t the panacea to addressing the problem of crowding in our hospitals. The problems with crowding have been a feature in our public health services for as long as I can remember. Nurses went on strike in the 90′s because of the risk to safe patient care in these very same hospitals, and nothing changed. We had a task force on emergency departments which examined this same phenomena, and they came forward with a set of recommendations that were needed to address the problem and none of them have been implemented. In 2014, they then decided to establish another task force on emergency departments despite having the answers that they needed to address the problem from the first task force.
Can’t blame them at all. And as to the “trolley” figures, that’s only a part of it, I don’t think it takes into account those in all the waiting rooms.
What on earth is going on with the HSE? Judging by the all the recent press the a&e’s appear to be hell on earth.
I’ve often wondered, I watch 24hrs in A&E (great show, channel 4) set in a few different hospitals in UK. And the NHS system seems world class, they have a “red phone” and when it rings they take a message and use and intercom system and say for example “paediatric RTA trauma at helipad in 10 minutes” and it’s amazing to see the team assemble…could be upwards of 20 professionals, including anaesthesia, radiographer, consultants, various surgeons, nurses etc all waiting patiently around an empty trolley for their patient. The team leader wears a purple vest and their job is to solely dictate to everyone from an observation point. It’s calm, relaxed and efficient even if the person has had their legs blown off (which was in one episode) and this could be happening with 2/3 patients at the same time in the same a&e as they have 3 red phones. Each patient having separate teams.
What I’ve wondered is….are Ireland’s A&E’s like this?!?
I’m guessing not, but I could be wrong….
The NHS in England in particular is at breaking point due to funding cuts to the trusts and over reliance on the A&E system. Most hospitals had their worst performing Christmas to date, and from my experience in London the ambulance service is struggling to cope with demand. GPs are no better either. Just before the Christmas break, I passed by local GP in NW London around 8am when the surgery opens. There were people queuing outside the door as the waiting room was full. And believe me, this was not just one or two people standing outside on a cold morning, it was about 10 people. This is all paving the way for the Tories to dismantle the NHS for privatisation. I am a major advocate of the NHS, it is a great system and has served the people of Britain well for the last 60 years. It is not without its failings however and similar to the Irish system, this comes down to funding.
This situation with our hospitals didn’t just creep up on us overnight, it didn’t just happen by itself, it was allowed to happen and created by successive governments, and to be fair quite a lot of people cheered it on, despite the warnings.
The A&E department of the Lourdes hospital in Drogheda now has over 80 people on trolleys and 40 in the department, this is in a new A&E Department designed to cope with less than 20 patients. So when it has suddenly become the biggest ward in the hospital does anyone think they’re going to get any extra staff to cope with these patients?
I’ve seen staff in this hospital have to move trolleys on the main corridor like a puzzle just to be able to get serious ill patients being brought in by ambulance into their trauma areas, I’ve seen them break down with frustration and apologise to their patients. Me at the time. I’ve seen them literally beg with managers that terminally ill patients be admitted and given a bed, I’ve seen those managers ignore them.
I don’t know if it’s true but I’ve heard it said that medical staff shouldn’t get emotionally attached to their patients, that’s not what I saw. I saw nurses and carers who gave a bloody damn, as I looked around me and listened they cared about their patients and fought for them. I witnessed two young girls taking terrible abuse from a man old enough to know better. I watched as there wasn’t enough nurses to cope with the numbers, those in the department itself and on trolleys.
We need these hospital staff, and it’s obvious that if we expect them to work in such punishing circumstances then they’re not going to do it for peanuts, it’s obvious that they have to be treated with respect and paid reasonably. At the end of the day if we stop to listen to them what they’re asking for is to be able to treat their patients in a dignified respectable manner, and that’s us. Everyone wins.
Spot on Jed. I. It must be very demoralising to work in those conditions day in and day out, without upper management actually listening to those working on the ground.
The government allows the health service to crumble but ensures the neo liberal vandals of the IMF got their €9 billion pound of flesh last month.
http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2014/1128/663203-noonan-imf-loans/
This is the price we pay as a society when the vast speculative debts of the financial elite are passed on to the people.
The red phone system is used to pre warn the receiving hospital of a seriously ill or injured patient who requires a multi disciplinary team team to assess and treat them i.e. a “real” emergency. That pre alert system exists here, but contrary to what you see on TV it’s not ringing every 3 minutes. Emergency Dept’s in The US, UK and Ireland are treated as drop in medical centres by the general public. This is partly due to a sense of entitlement by patients but mostly due to a non existent primary care system which would do a lot to alleviate unessecary ED attendances. In the late 90′s St James Hospital in Dublin undertook a study to analyse the types of injuries and illnesses of patients brought in by 999 ambulance into their Emergency Dept. Over 80% of those transported by ambulance were discharged the same day. Less than 5% of the remainder needed admission to the hospital. So to summarise very few of those attending ED’s throughout the country are actually “true emergencies” i.e. sudden onset of serious illness or injury. ED’s are used by GP’s to get patients into the system who might require tests which could be done on an out patient basis if the health service functioned properly or to deal with chronic problems which should be dealt with at home if we had a primary care system. Worse still are the people who ring 999 because their inhaler ran out or they have a migraine (I kid you not)
Dont often agree with you Coddler but I certainly do today!
I can’t believe they’ve put it off for so long
You’re rocking now Leo, great idea choosing to ignore them.
Egypt Drags a group of 494 for Collective Trial?
A collective of 16 in an Irish court or European court must be a future for Irish government ministers.
The body count will demand justice for Irish families.
When absolute disgust is directed at a rotten health service and media interviewers dutifully press staff of HSE Ireland for answers…
Where are the Ministers with their collective responsibility?
Why has RTE avoided all or any references to this Cabinet responsibility?
Enda, Joan and media glutton extraordinary Leo are absent from screen and print media.
Note, no search party is permitted to leave the confines of fortress RTE.
Are these collective 16 hiding in RTE or hidden by avoiding even to mention the name of a minister on any RTE programme.
Finding these ‘good news only’ chancers is beyond the remit of RTE (aka the government press office).
1.3 billion surplus tax for the last few weeks into government accounts and community services closed for two weeks over Christmas… to save money?
Saving lives and patient dignity are not important to Irish collective 16.
They are on holidays.
There are 800 people waiting to be discharged but community care nurses and comm care services have been off for the last two weeks. Christmas holidays. This is a mismanagement issue. There has to be home care services for these people (used to be called bed blockers – a horrible term).
Front line nurses seem to be saying the same thing all the time but nobody is listening … too many managers who couldn’t manage a paperclip: cronyism: managers distorting figures.
There isn’t a major funding issue. 600 million overspend was covered by govt funding last year and still we have the same problems. It is a mismanagement problem.
When a person goes to Hosp there must be a strategy to them through treatment to aftercare and health. Every piddling manager in the system should have this holistic approach and the entire system should be geared to effectively treat people instead of managers fighting their own little bit of turf.
Management is totally ineffective in the HSE. In fact, Management is a misnomer. Nurses should go on strike to highlight that fact, but many many nurses cover management positions to get them away from the pressure that is placed on them through mismanagement.
*covet management positions not cover
The govt spin lies concerning the economy & manipulate figures to fit the stories that look good for them. Leo can’t spin this one. He’s happy to talk about water tax all day but on matters of health he’s mute. Perhaps his advisors are all still on their holidays.
Alot of the problem with the irish health system is they’re over staffed behind the scene’s. The kitchens, administration, maintenance are way over staffed compared to any privately run company. If hugh money has to be paid out for this it natural there’s going to be no money for front line services.
I think you’ll find that most depts in hospitals are understaffed thanks to the block on recruitment
6% and 16% of the HSE staff are doctors and nurses, it’s completely over staffed by middle management.
Maria. If you think what I see every day of the week in the catering dept of any of the hospitals is under staffing you wouldn’t last too long in a hotel/restaurant.
And add to that the fact that these overstaffed catering departments product almost uniformly crap food.
If the next time a Minister or a politician has Togo to hospital, they were treated the same as us ordinary people, things would change.
Years ago Mary Harney was rushed to Sligo Hospital, suspected gluttony? The staff in the hospital could not do enough for her. No sitting in the waiting room, lying on a trolley. Best of treatment – if piggy had spent a night on a trolley, maybe things would have changed.
Varadkar should volunteer to word a weekend shift in a busy A&E – there would be a lot less verbal bulls**t.
Nail on the head Edward, the politicians need to get out of their ivory towers .
Varadkar has a mountain of a task ahead of him and although I detest the party and have very little time for him I do think he just might make headway.
This has been building for years and its obvious that the ministers put in charge can’t do the job. Have they forgotten they are there to sort the problem . But its always the same line you hear from them. Shameful in Ireland 2015. The entire government should be hanging there heads in shame. They have piled tax after tax USC on people and they can’t even give the country a decent health system. Less people in this entire country than some cities in the UK. Shameful.
I had a stroke few years ago. I spent 18 hours on a trolley in A+E . Nurses doing their best but it’s political . Closing down wings. Embargo on recruiting and too many management (miss) scratching their asses all day. Also private health insurance is not helping. Increasees every year has forced families to abandon plans and put their lives into public hospital . .disgraceful !
563 people waiting on trolly beds Leo???? Less pronouncements on subjects like IW and more application to your own brief might help,dont you think?
Leo unavailable this morning for morning Ireland . Always available for media for anything but not this morning. Funny that. Hse spokesperson refusing to say how much they asked the government for extra funding to tackle the overcrowding. Wonder why? Probably because they only got 1/4 of what was needed.
Worst hospital in Dublin worst run hospital in Dublin
Hope the ED staff at St Vincent’s take note and do the same.
Absolutely shameful the conditions for both for patients and staff.
Time to stand up and be counted and to make it clear to senior management , the HSE and Leo V that enough is enough and staff are not going to work in these conditions any longer.
Currently third world and dreadful for all concerned.
If the nurses continue to allow themselves to be used like door mats then there is no better group than the hierarchy to do it. They don’t give a dam about patients or staff. I for one will stand and support you. 100%.
“Cannot be resolved overnight”… they have had years
Yet we got a tax cut in the budget, and we will be promised more before the election. The health service is a national embarrassment. People from other EU countries living here, fly home to use hospital services rather than spend days lying on the floor in A&E. There are 5 year waiting lists for routine procedures. Of course if they try to raise money to fix it, people will protest and say we are paying for it already.
Lets get to the root of the problem
800 people are in hospital beds who dont need medical care. These need nursing home care so the long term fix is to build large nursing home in strategic locations to cater for demand. The cost of providing care in these homes in lower than a hospital bed.These homes should be built by the government without going through the bureaucratic public procurement process, a national emergency allows you procure quickly. The management of these homes should be outsourced out of the public sector.
In the meantime i cannot understand why all the relevant stakeholders don’t lock themselves in a room and agree an interim plan to reduce numbers…this should include things like cancellation of non critical surgery, consultants working round the clock to discharge people that dont really need to be in A&E..Ive never really understood why some stakeholders think health service is only a 9-5 Mon – Friday (nurses left to mind the house after hours) The relevant unions should not see this as an opportunity to further members interests but rather prove patient care is more important than members interests…The HSE are a joke…we all know that..but throwing loads a money at this in the short term a has proven a failure..the entire Hospital system needs a full review in order to fix..my concern is that any changes and the unions will see this as an opportunity to further interests.., we need a practical approach to ensure staff are appropriately rewarded.
Government dont care about the health system or anything to do with people’s lives only in pleasing Europe who wont be able to keep them in power next election the people should put in people who care about the people not Europe and cronies
Had to attend an outpatients in early November in C.U.H. The amount of admin staff floating through the clinic left me open mouthed. Never saw so many doing so little!
Working to rule will only make a bad situation worse. Pity any hospital patient when that happens.
Perhaps they don’t understand the slow down impact of a work-to-rule on crowding!
It’s a farcical response, the numbers on trollies will double.
@Tony, The unions are really part of the problem IMHO
According to what I heard on the radio yesterday from some INMO official, the work to run means they won’t do all the statistical form filling and other administrative and non-core tasks, which will actually free up more time for patient care.
History should have thought the nursing unions that work-to-rules simply do not work!
The unions are really part of the problem IMHO.
There’s 601 patients currently on trolleys awaiting admission.
Sitting in a hospital now its hard to see how that aren’t already working to rule
So a few quid will fix it, this is what we did for twenty years, there needs to be some slash and burn restructuring in the dept of health
The buck stopped with kenny after all he is the boss
Oh woop dee doo
have your say