Cavan General Hospital has confirmed there are “severe” pressures on its accident and emergency department, partly due to the increase in flu and the winter-vomiting bug in the community. It said this evening it may have to defer some surgery to deal with the crisis.
The HSE said there were 11 patients in the hospital’s A&E department this evening who needed to be admitted and that 10 people were awaiting assessment and may either be discharged or admitted.
There were a further 21 patients in an ‘overflow’ ward, a statement said.
“Meetings are being held with clinical staff to identify actions to alleviate the immediate situation and these meetings will continue until the current situation is resolved,” the HSE said.
“These actions include additional ward rounds by the consultants. All non essential and elective surgery is being reviewed and deferred if necessary in consultation with the consultants.”
The hospital was also working closely with community nurses to "expedite" the placement of five patients who have been clinically discharged but who are still occupying beds.
“Other hospital sites in the region are being contacted on to check bed availability and initiate potential transfer of patients pending clinical decision by [the] consultant.”
Management at the hospital was monitoring the situation “on an hourly basis”.
The HSE added: “The current pressure relates to the sheer increase in activity that these units are experiencing and also to the recent increase in Norovirus and the flu in the community nationally at present.”
Group general manager Dermot Monaghan said: “Given the significant pressure under which we are operating we would urge people to attend their GPs, where possible, rather than presenting directly to the emergency department,”he said.
Mr Monaghan said that for a patient whose needs are not urgent, a visit to the GP or pharmacist may be an easier and faster way to get the right help or advice, particularly for those with flu-like symptoms.
Cavan’s overcrowding crisis follows a similar problem at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda earlier this week. The hospital had a record number of 40 patients on trolleys in A&E on Monday evening, 15 of whom had been waiting since Friday.
It was forced to go on ‘protective call’, taking only urgent obstetric, paediatric and trauma cases. Other adult medical and surgical cases were referred to Cavan, Navan or Dundalk hospitals.
By yesterday morning, the number of patients waiting on trolleys had been reduced to six and the hospital lifted its on-call restrictions.
Hospital consultants claimed this week that overcrowding at the Drogheda hospital was a direct consequence of what they claimed was the HSE’s failure to plan adequately for acute services in the north east.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), which represents more than 1,800 members, said overcrowding was a major safety issue for both patients and staff and that patients were being “crammed” two and even three to a cubicle.