THE IRISH NURSES and Midwives Organisation is calling for the Emergency Department at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital to go off call immediately due to overcrowding.
The INMO claims there are 41 patients waiting for a bed and says 18 of those are over the age of 75.
Beaumont Hospital has released a statement saying that the Emergency Department has now been provided with off call assistance:
The hospital has been provided with off call assistance this evening by Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital to relieve pressure on the ED.
However, the union says the patients have been forced to spend days on trolleys and chairs in frantic, bright and noisy conditions waiting for a bed to become available.
It’s understood that the department is also short two nurses.
INMO Industrial Relations Officer, Lorraine Monaghan said, “This situation has continued to worsen with overcrowding levels up by 40% in the first 9 months of 2015 compared to the same period last year.”
It is unacceptable that in 2015 patients are subjected to such degrading, inhumane conditions when they are at their most vulnerable.
The statement from Beaumont Hospital added that, “2015 has seen a significant increase in attendances at the ED along with an older profile and a greater complexity of illness in patients presenting. Patients can only be transferred to wards when beds become available”.
It also stated that 33 in-patient ward beds are not available due to essential refurbishment work for transplant patients, this work is due to be completed by the end of November.
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