Woman aged in her 90s waits 50 hours to be seen as medical staff describe awful conditions in A&E – TheLiberal.ie – Our News, Your Views

Woman aged in her 90s waits 50 hours to be seen as medical staff describe awful conditions in A&E




The emergency department at Dublin’s Mater Hospital has been described as a “living purgatory” with more than 40 people waiting to be admitted on chairs and trolleys, with one 90-year-old person waiting more than 50 hours.

Patients who have been evaluated and deemed necessary for admission to the wards are now lined up in corridors and in clusters around the nursing wards where they have no dignity or opportunity to sleep.

They are not receiving treatment and medicines on time because the staffing level is below 60% of the required staff, the nurses said.

“One 90-year-old man has been here for 50 hours waiting admission, and there’s an 82-year-old woman who has been here 42 hours. A lot of people are here in excess of 24 hours. There are 44 people awaiting beds. These are people who have all been assessed and it has been determined they are sick enough to be admitted,” said one nurse, reports Independent.

Another nurse said: “A person can sprint 100 metres in one burst, but you cannot sustain that pace for a marathon, and that is what nurses are now expected to do. There now seems to be a mantra of ‘well, you coped during Covid’ so there is an expectation that that pace can be maintained, but this situation is worse than Covid. During Covid many people stayed away from hospitals and there were resources put in place to deal with numbers. Those situations have now changed,” reports Independent.

A spokesperson for the Mater Hospital told Independent.ie: “Services at the Mater Hospital remain under extreme pressure due to high numbers of presentations at the emergency department (ED). Patients who are presenting at the ED with non-urgent conditions are unfortunately experiencing lengthy waiting times to be seen. Like many acute hospitals across Dublin and the rest of the country, the Mater Hospital is impacted by staffing difficulties, particularly in relation to nursing. The Mater Hospital is actively utilising all avenues available to support staffing levels particularly in ED, including the redeployment of staff where possible. In addition, the hospital is engaging with agencies to secure additional staffing,” reports Independent.

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