Old people would rather die at home than face A&E, meeting told

Irish hospital emergency departments are worse than those in Gambia and many older people would sooner die at home rather than face the health service, a meeting of pensioners in Cork has heard.

Nora O'Riordan, of Active Retirement Ireland, said older people did not want to be at the mercy of an inefficient health care system

“They would prefer to die at home than suffer the indignity of lying in a corridor for hours, days or even weeks in between drunks, drug addicts and people using abusive language,” she told the Age Action Ireland meeting at the Imperial Hotel.

"When Fianna Fáil were there it was just as bad, if not worse, because they took away the Universal Medical Card. Our A&E's are worse than Gambia. Our patients are begging GPs not to send them to hospital."

Billy Kelleher, Fianna Fáil's health spokesman and TD for Cork North Central, told the meeting at the Imperial Hotel that there were "huge challenges" in relation to the ageing population.

“We now have 500,000 people who are over 65. Life expectancy is now improving on a continual basis,” he said. “That is a very positive thing but that in itself does bring a challenge in that we have to plan not in the short and immediate term but in to the longer term.”

Mr Kelleher said political cycles looked very much to the short term and that there was a need to “move beyond that horizon in terms of what we can sustain in the future”.

The meeting also heard from representatives of Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, the Green Party and other groups.

Diarmuid O’Cadhla of the People’s Convention said he was without a list of policies for the assembled pensioners but would instead consult with them on what they wanted.

“What we need is representation. We are ruled over. We don’t have consultation,” he said. “Why is it that we have these meetings once every five years? Do you not have a view in the intervening period?”

John Moore Cronin of Active Retirement Ireland said he was concerned that candidates in the election were just making promises about home care and were not focusing on keeping the elderly involved in the community.

In the 2011 general election turnout among voters over the age of 65 was 88 per cent far higher than the national average. More than half a million pensioners are eligible to vote in this year’s general election.