Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda today lifted restrictions on its accident and emergency services after it was forced to curtail them due to serious overcrowding this week.
In a statement, the HSE said the hospital was back on call for all referrals from 9am this morning. The HSE said there were six patients in the emergency department awaiting admission, down from a record high of 40 on Monday.
The Irish Nurses’ Organisation put the number of patients waiting in the Drogheda hospital’s A&E department at seven today.
The HSE asked that, if possible, members of the public attend their GP or the north east doctor-on-call service (NEDOC) in the first instance.
Hospital consultants claimed yesterday that overcrowding at the 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. “Patients are being crammed two and even three to a cubicle with more being accommodated on trolleys and in corridors,” said IHCA assistant secretary general Donal Duffy
Staff and management at the hospital met yesterday to discuss the overcrowding crisis.
Adult medical and surgical patients were referred to two other hospitals in the region after Our Lady of Lourdes temporarily halted such admissions this week. It remained on ‘protected call’ last night, but was open for urgent paediatric, obstetrics and trauma cases.
Separately, Beaumont Hospital in Dublin last night reissued its appeal to visitors to stay away, as it continues to fight a serious outbreak of norovirus, also known as the winter-vomiting virus.
A hospital spokesman said some 75 patients had symptoms of the virus on Monday.
These include nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.
Over the past two weeks, the virus has affected a total of 192 patients and 101 members of staff.
St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin also placed restrictions on visitors earlier this week and asked that children be kept away from the hospital after 50 patients were struck by the virus.
The Mater hospital, Tallaght hospital, Naas General, Mid Western Regional Hospital, Ennis and Midlands Regional Hospital and Mullingar have also restricted visitors.