Hiqa denies responsibility for investigating long trolley waits

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) has said that it has no formal role in the investigation of complaints about long hospital trolley waits.

The State’s health watchdog was clarifying its involvement in the controversy surrounding a 101-year-old woman who spent 26 hours on a trolley in Tallaght hospital last week.

Staff treating the woman said they contacted Hiqa about their concerns, but the watchdog initially said it was not notified of any complaint in relation to the matter.

The memo from staff to hospital management described conditions in the emergency department as overcrowded and unsafe and said that the hospital’s response had been “wholly inadequate”. The email was copied to Hiqa.

After checking, Hiqa accepted that it had been copied in on two emails from hospital staff in relation to overcrowding and the plight of the woman.

The emails were sent to the regulator’s concerns section, which mostly deals with nursing homes.

A spokesman said that there is no formal requirement for hospitals to notify it of serious incidents and that the agency has no role in dealing with individual concerns.

He said that, in contrast, nursing homes are legally required to notify Hiqa, as the licensing authority, of serious incidents and the regulator has the power to sanction operators in this sector.

The spokesman said that concerns expressed about hospital care “aren’t just buried” and that they are fed into the system internally.

In some cases, as in relation to the Portlaoise hospital investigation, the information provided through this route helps inform the agency’s work.

Strike deferred

Meanwhile, planned industrial action by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) at Beaumont Hospital has been deferred after talks at the Labour Relations Commission.

The INMO had served notice of the action last month over what it said was the failure of management to recruit additional nursing staff and address “unsafe” conditions in the emergency department.

A recruitment plan has been drawn up to fill vacancies and a review will be set up to determine appropriate staffing levels.