Patients' families hit out at a “cattle mart” A&E as the highest-ever levels of patient overcrowding were recorded on Monday at University Hospital Limerick.
A woman claimed her 83-year-old mother who has dementia was left on a chair in urine-soaked clothes last week as staff were initially too busy to change her catheter bag.
UHL set the shameful new record with 85 patients on trolleys.
A spokesman apologised to patients “experiencing lengthy waits for beds”, and that the hospital was “working to alleviate the situation”.
The elderly patient attended UHL last Monday night along with her 62-year-old daughter.
However, despite complaining at 9.45pm that the bag was leaking, it wasn’t until 3.50am that staff attended.
The daughter said: “She was soaked, there was urine everywhere. She wasn’t on a trolley, she was in the waiting room on the chair. It was wet everywhere. They gave me a pad but her clothes were wet and her coat was wet – it was sopping, it was disgusting.”
The patient and her daughter returned to UHL at 4pm yesterday after the pensioner fell. She was still waiting on a trolley 24 hours later with a suspected broken bone in her back.
The woman said: “It’s madness. They didn’t even have trolleys, people were on chairs, any space they could find at the end of trolleys.”
Despite their ordeal she praised “brilliant” staff for doing their best.
Noreen Keane, 76, from Rhebogue, attended the hospital at 8.30pm Sunday complaining of severe pain.
The Limerick grandmother eventually got a bed in a single room nine hours later.
Her daughter Karen Ryan said: “We are the lucky ones.
“It’s ridiculous in there. It’s like a cattle market, there are trolleys everywhere. You’re standing over trolleys to get into the room, it’s madness.”
John Monaghan, 73, from Ennis, Co Clare, arrived at UHL at 11.30am on Sunday.
Despite being seriously ill he was still in A&E, waiting on a trolley, “praying” for a bed, over 24 hours later.
Mr Monaghan’s son John said: “I feel sorry for the staff. Genuinely, they are trying their hardest in there.
“They are trying to fit oxygen bottles to people in the corridors. The staff are just thrown to the wolves.“
Mr Monaghan Jnr, who travelled from his home in Belfast, said his father was suffering with “fluid on the lungs, breathing difficulty” and was diagnosed with cancer last week.
He added: “His lips went blue and they rushed him in. He had kidney failure, but he’s had a kidney transplant so he’s attending renal and he was diagnosed with cancer. He has all that and now this here.”
In a statement a hospital spokesman urged the public to “consider all care options before attending A&E today”.
He said the hospital group was “appropriately transferring patients to other hospitals” and were “receiving expert medical care [with] every effort being made to make their stay as comfortable as possible”. The spokesman added: “People may attend a GP or out-of-hours service for referral to an Assessment Unit the following day if required.
“Local Injury Units (LIUs) are open at Ennis and Nenagh Hospitals and St John’s Hospital for broken bones, dislocations, sprains, strains, wounds, scalds and minor burns.
“In the 24 hours prior to 8am [yesterday], 183 patients had attended the hospital’s Emergency Department. This is significantly above the norm for a Sunday. We regret any patient has to wait on a trolley for admission. This is not the service we wish to provide.”
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation called for emergency funding to tackle the crisis.
Among its demands included the cancellation of non-essential elective work and more home care packages to move patients out of the hospital.
It also called for an immediate end to the recruitment ban for nurses and midwives and extra support for GPs and Public Health Nurses to allow more home/community treatment.
Yesterday there were a further 631 patients without beds across the country, 22 of them children.
The other worst-hit included Cork University Hospital, 52, Letterkenny University Hospital, 47, Tallaght University Hospital, 36 and University Hospital Galway, 33.
INMO spokeswoman Mary Fogarty said: “Despite the best efforts of staff, the situation in Limerick escalates.
“The hospital is breaking records in the worst possible way. Promises of improvement will not suffice. Action is needed.
“Without an increase in beds and the professionals to staff them, this problem will continue to escalate.
Labour TD Alan Kelly has called for a bespoke plan for UHL. He said: “This is not good enough. The circumstances people are being left in are disgraceful.
“Staff in UHL are over stretched, stressed beyond words because of the recruitment ban the Government continues to deny exists.
“Health Minister Simon Harris cannot plead ignorance on this one.
“The grave concerns of patients and staff are constantly being brought to the minister’s attention and he seems to be doing very little to solve the problems.”
