Tallaght Hospital staff under increased pressure from overcrowding
By Aura McMenamin
The pressure that staff in Tallaght Hospital find themselves in came under the spotlight following a visit to the emergency department by a public representative.
Hospital CEO David Slevin and Director of Facilities Kieran Faughnan invited Councillor Charlie O’Connor to inspect the facilities in the hospital last Tuesday. The hospital is inviting public representatives to contact the HSE on the importance of a number of proposals for the development of the hospital.
These include plans to increase the number of Intensive Care Unit beds from nine to 21, which Tallaght Hospital is expecting a decision by the HSE on whether to fund this in December.
There is also a proposed six-storey building which would hold 72 beds in single rooms across three storeys. If passed, it would also create a space for a new oncology and endoscopy unit.
Cllr O’Connor requested a tour of the hospital, which he says punctuated the need for the development of the hospital.
“During my visit there were 103 people in the Emergency Department. 22 were in the waiting room waiting to see a doctor.
“21 were on trolleys waiting for beds in the hospital and six of those very unwell patients had been on trolleys for over 24 hours.”
O’Connor said that doctors and nursing staff told him that they ‘had no safe place to see and treat patients’. He reported that the morale of nurses was low and that he had been told that many senior nurses had recently handed in their notice.
According to the latest trolley watch figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) in the month of September, Tallaght Hospital had more patients (448) on trolleys awaiting beds than any other hospital in the capital.
Tallaght Hospital is among the top five hospitals in the country experiencing overcrowding in the past month.
According to the INMO figures, in the first nine months of 2017, a record number of 73,556 admitted patients, were on trolleys, which represented a 7 per cent increase from 2016 for the same period.
In a letter to Minister for Health Simon Harris made public last month, A&E consultant Dr Jim Gray detailed the health risk to patients left on trolleys, their lack of privacy and their inappropriate placement on corridors and in cubicles that would block ambulance arrivals and the arrival of waiting-room patients.
Dr Gray also said that the “kneejerk response” from the government of a €5.5 million extension to the emergency department was welcome, but did nothing for overcrowding.
Cllr O’Connor, who is a former board member of Tallaght Hospital, said he was glad to have visited the hospital to be able to make the case for the hospital’s needed development.
He said: “We have a modern emergency department which is under pressure. There’s a whole range of situations that need to be dealt with. When you go in it comes across very quickly.
“I’m glad that I attended to see the situation. I have tabled this business for the next monthly Regional Health Forum for Dublin Mid Leinster and will raise this at future council meetings.”
