A 90-year-old woman was forced to endure more than 48 hours of pain on a trolley and chair during the worst-ever period of overcrowding at a hospital.
Retired businesswoman Ann Talty, from Raheen, Co Limerick, was admitted to A&E after her health “deteriorated” due to back pain she had for two weeks.
Her daughter Trish said her mum, who used to run a shop with her husband John, was admitted to University Hospital Limerick’s emergency department on Monday.
That morning UHL set a new record for the highest level of overcrowding in a single day, with 85 patients on trolleys, 55 of whom were waiting for a bed in the emergency department.
She said the following day a doctor had ordered pain medication but “two hours later she still hadn’t gotten it” until a nurse was able to administer it when it was brought to their attention.
She said when she offered to take her mother to the bathroom, Ann told her she was “afraid that I might not be able to walk”.
Trish added: “It’s not the staff’s fault. I can completely understand that, but the situation is so crazy.
“I cannot stand here and not say something. I think there has to be reports every
day in the newspaper until they do something.
“This situation has caused my mother to be more ill, in more pain and it has exacerbated her back condition and her back pain.”
A spokesman for the UL Hospitals Group said he could not comment on individual cases with third parties.
He added: “We regret that any patient has to wait on a trolley for admission. This is not the level of service we wish to provide but we want to reassure the public that every effort is made to move patients to a bed as soon as possible.”
An HSE spokesman said: “The number of patients requiring transfer of care from hospital remains high today at 692.
“While this is likely to increase the waiting times in emergency departments for all patients attending, we would like to reassure patients they will be seen and that, as always, the sickest and most seriously injured patients will be seen first.”
.jpg?w=600)
