Trauma in A&E

Sir, – I had the misfortune to have to attend St Vincent’s Hospital A&E over the weekend with a member of my family. The staff were all professional, calm and considerate, for which we sincerely thank them.

The staff cannot be faulted for the abysmal service provided by the HSE. We arrived at 20:15 on Saturday. At 04:30 the next morning I heard a nurse tell another patient that a person had been by then waiting 23 hours for a bed. There were no beds or even trolleys available.

I seem to remember that our health service receives the second-highest allocation of public funds per capita in the EU.

A few questions for the HSE. The spend is not visible at the front line so where is it being spent? What is the proportion of backline to frontline workers and how does this compare with a country where the health service is deemed to be adequate?