An 80-year-old man has told of his “horrific” experience of spending more than two days on a trolley after recovering from a quadruple heart bypass.
Mick Murtagh from O’Briensbridge, Co Clare, underwent open heart surgery in July.
On August 18 he was rushed to University Hospital Limerick after blacking out five times.
But the pensioner didn’t get a bed until two days after he was admitted.
While Mick was told he was on a priority list, he was informed there was no room for him.
He said: “I wouldn’t wish lying on a trolley on my worst enemy. That is the best way to put it.
“You can read about what it is like lying on a trolley over and over again but you can really understand it or know how horrific it is until you experience it.
“I spent about 20 years doing community work and I believe I made my contribution to society.”
While medics considered making Mick a priority to get a bed, he revealed it didn’t happen until the Tuesday evening.
He said: “One of the nurses said I was on a list for a priority bed. Then the response came back we don’t have a bed even though we would like to get you one.
“As much as we might try to get you a bed it isn’t there I was told.”
When Mick eventually got one he said he received very good treatment in UHL, adding: “It is like a totally different world when you get a bed in a ward. It is unbelievable.
"I felt a sense of peace and relaxation in the bed that I hadn’t on a trolley because I was tensed up. It was a terrible experience to got through it.
“There is no comparison between having a bed in a ward and lying on a trolley. You have space, room and privacy in a ward.
“You can pull a curtain around your bed.”
The former Green Party local elections candidate believes vulnerable elderly patients after serious surgery should be given priority when it comes to beds.
His message for Health Minister Simon Harris is extra beds are needed immediately in UHL, adding: “If the demand for beds isn’t there in UHL today, it will be there tomorrow.”
UHL acknowledged it is facing additional pressures in accessing transitional and home care package funding, which has contributed to a rise in delayed discharges.
The UL Hospitals Group recalled on the week beginning August 12, average presentations on week
days surpassed 220, a pattern that continued into the following week.
Average daily presentations at Accident and Emergency remain high, with 212 attendances on August 26, and 178 on August 27.
It stated: “While most of the 10 beds recently closed to admissions following an outbreak of a gastrointestinal bug at UHL have been re-opened, the four blocked beds that remain as of today, Wednesday, will still impact on moving the equivalent number of patients from the Department. Over the past 12 months, bed capacity at UHL has increased by five.
“Construction has commenced on a 60-bed block at UHL, which we expect to open in Q4 of 2020.
“With an estimated total capital cost of €19.5million, this is a significant project for the Mid-West that will begin to address the acknowledged shortfall in bed capacity in the group.”
