The crisis at Irish hospitals A&E departments is escalating further.
It has emerged today that some patients experiencing acute psychiatric illness have had to endure marathon stays of over three days in trolleys at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.
Some shocking revelations about the hospital have uncovered a litany of terrifying experiences, such as a psychiatric patient chasing and attempting to stab a care assistant with a pair of scissors, another patient trying to slash their own wrists, people left without treatment for 78 hours, and Gardai being called in to locate a missing patient.
Staff have declared that they no longer feel secure in their work environment.
Sources at the hospital said that nine psychiatric patients were cared for at Beaumont A&E last weekend because there is no out-of-hours assessment unit in the facility’s Ashlin Centre. People with psychiatric illness are supposed to be treated there, but there aren’t enough beds available so the A&E department sometimes deals with the overflow.