This is the stark claim made by an association representing Ireland’s emergency response departments.
The issue of the country’s readiness to deal with the local outbreak of a deadly disease such as Ebola was put under the spotlight yesterday, when a woman was rushed to hospital in Dublin with Ebola-like symptoms.
Though this case turned out to be a false alarm, the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine has now raised ‘serious safety concerns’ about the handling of the issue.
Specifically, the association pointed out the chronic overcrowding of emergency departments, the over-reliance on trolleys to accommodate patients, insufficient isolation facilities, and the HSE’s reliance on temporary staff who may not be sufficiently familiar with procedures and/or may lack adequate training, as reasons for concern.
The statement concluded by saying that the overcrowding and readiness level are ‘incompatible with best practice.’