Hospital staff are under major stress say INMO
Chief Executive of the Saolta Group says 'very, very significant number of patients on trolleys' today
Members of the Irish Nurses Midwives Organisation (INMO) are ‘living in fear’ because of the situation at Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) and fear overcrowding could lead to ‘something being overlooked.’
The industrial officer for the north west branch of the INMO, Neal Donohue, has warned that staff are struggling with the current situation at LUH, where there has been significant overcrowding, this week.
According to the latest figures released by the INMO, 46 patients were awaiting beds at LUH yesterday morning.
Cases of flu, respiratory illnesses and a rise in patients with Covid-19 have led to the increase of people presenting at hospitals nationwide. Mr Donohue said the situation in Letterkenny is upsetting for staff who are lying awake at night with worry.
He said: “It [the hospital] is bursting at the seams, I am told. This is urgent. This is an emergency. This is the ‘right here, right now’. We have got to protect the most vulnerable.
Staff at the hospital are living and worrying in fear that something will be missed and there will be adverse consequences for the community. Our members are desperately worried because of the fear of something being missed.”
The INMO is calling for the reintroduction of masks in all congregated settings in order to protect staff and patients from the spread of Covid or other illnesses.
He said: “We know how important masks are … it’s a small price to protect lives.”
Mr Donohue said nurses at the hospital are taking care of 25 patients where normally they would care for six. He said that while local management are trying to do the best they can, more needs to be done at a national level.
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The Chairperson of the HSE West Forum Cllr Gerry McMonagle said staff are more concerned for their patients than themselves in the current situation.
“A lot of them are leaving the healthcare system here and they are going abroad,” he said. “They are going to work at what they love to do. They are getting well paid and reasonable hours.”
The Letterkenny-based councillor said more resources are needed at LUH adding that there has been forewarning in relation to the current situation at the hospital.
“During the summer we didn’t have the flu and we were over-run,” he said.
“We had 50 people on trolleys, we had hundreds in the Emergency Department and I have been saying for a while in the Regional Health Forum that what we need is a helicopter view of our health services. We need an integrated plan of all our health services working in conjunction with one another.
“Staff are working longer shifts and their days off are limited due to the current situation to support each other,” he said.
The Sinn Féin councillor said ward sizes were reduced in community hospitals and these buildings fell into disrepair which has also had an impact on Letterkenny University Hospital. Primary care centres in Newtowncunningham and Buncrana which have recently been opened are not resourced and until they are Mr McMonagle hospital staff and management will continue to fight an uphill battle.
'Very, very significant numbers'
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the Saolta Group, Tony Canavan told RTÉ this morning, Thursday, that the situation across the hospital group, which includes Letterkenny University Hospital, has eased since the beginning of the week.
“Having said that, we still have very, very significant numbers of patients on trolleys awaiting admission to our hospitals on each of our sites, so far example in Galway, this morning, at 6.30am, we had thirty-one patients that were on trolleys in the emergency department …
“In Letterkenny we had thirty-five patients in the Emergency Department and on wards, on trolleys awaiting admission. These are very, very significant numbers even though as I said that is a slight improvement of where we were on Tuesday morning.”
Mr Canavan said Sligo University Hospital has been under sustained pressure this year.
He said the expectation is the number of patients for admission will increase as the day progresses but added efforts are afoot to discharge patients who are ready for discharge as soon as possible to create space for those who are awaiting beds.
He hoped by late afternoon some space would be made available within hospitals to allow for admission. He did add, however, that patients will still be on trolleys, in Emergency Departments, as night falls.
He said that in the case of the six hospitals, efforts are underway to work closely with the other elements of the health services, community-based services, so patients can be discharged.
He said the group has been working towards the implementation of a plan that could see the provision of care for patients, to a certain extent, in the community. However, he did add that services have to be made available in the communities and that the Government has been working towards that goal.