“Please Santa, more doctors, more nurses, more beds” was one of the signs held at a protest demanding more resources for the Emergency Department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth on Monday.
Staff joined politicians outside the hospital for the lunchtime protest organised by the Safeguard Drogheda A&E Campaign, as more patients are expected to be brought by ambulance to the hospital instead of to Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan.
Michael O’Dowd, Aontú representative in Co Louth who organised the protest, said, “The first principle in medicine is do no harm and I am afraid that the plans by the HSE management to move A&E patients from Navan to Drogheda from this week, without giving extra resources, is rash, reckless and dangerous.”
He said, “Our message to our nurses, doctors and [the] ambulance service is we value your service and thank you. To the HSE our message is clear: listen to the consultants, listen to the parents of sick children, listen to the sick and vulnerable who cannot be here today, listen to the citizens of this town and invest in our frontline services before it is too late for many people.”
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The Mayor of Drogheda, Michelle Hall, said, “We are here to add our voices to the consultants, the frontline workers, the paramedics, nurses, healthcare workers who are under huge stress in our health system. They have fatigue after working through the global pandemic and now this winter they have to deal with huge numbers arriving in the ED with respiratory illnesses, Covid and flu.”
Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster said there was another option which was to put in additional resources and recruit more staff to Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan.
“That is an option they seem to be unwilling to look at. It is the most obvious option because it will serve the people of Navan and Meath area, and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital will continue to serve the people of this region. Both hospitals are understaffed and under-resourced.”
Fellow Sinn Féin deputy Ruairi Ó Murchú said, “We have fabulous services and fabulous staff here but they are under incredible pressure and we need to get them the supports that they require.”
He said the number of calls he received about people and the service in the Lourdes being under severe pressure had “gone through the roof”.
Louth Labour TD Ged Nash said the hospital “is the single most important piece of social infrastructure in our community”.
Referencing the sign asking Santa for more staff and beds, he said, “Frankly given the performance of the Minister for Health in relation to Navan and the implications of the bypass plan for Drogheda, I have more confidence and faith in Santa Claus than I have in the current Minister for Health.”
He said there were 16 vacant non-consultant hospital doctor posts unfilled in the Lourdes hospital and staff in ancillary services including nurses were “under severe pressure”.
A number of hospital and HSE staff were at the protest including Barbara Kelly, vice-chairwoman of the Louth branch of Fórsa. “We are at the coal front of all the patients coming in the door and the staff are absolutely on their knees,” she said. “Staff cannot get tea breaks, they are not getting lunch breaks, they can’t cope with the existing pressures that are there. We are working hard with management to fill those vacancies. Alone there are seven vacancies in the Emergency Department in terms of clerical, and that is without Navan coming on board. Staff are on their knees.”
In a statement the HSE said there was a new ambulance protocol that was due to take effect from Wednesday at 8am, whereby anyone who was critically ill or had any acute surgical problem should not be brought to Our Lady’s Hospital Navan.
