Seven hospital emergency departments remain unfit for purpose one year after an
official report exposed unacceptable conditions in the critical units, a medics'
claimed today.
Trolley waiting times are also now worse than ever despite a HSE investigation, the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) said.
The organisation, which represents A&E consultants - said none of the recommendations of last year’s Emergency Department Task Force report have been implemented.
The report, published by the HSE last June, found that seven A&E departments - at the Mater and Beaumont Hospitals in Dublin, the Mercy in Cork as well as emergency departments in Drogheda, Letterkenny, Cavan and Wexford - were unfit for purpose.
James Binchy, consultant at University Hospital Galway and secretary of the IAEM, said calls in the report for a six-hour maximum wait from time of arrival at A&E to admission have also yet to be enforced.
“None of the recommendations have been implemented,” he said. “One year on, emergency department overcrowding with in-patient boarders or patients on trolleys is worse than its ever been."