Overcrowding almost doubles at St Vincent’s hospital

Overcrowding at one of Dublin’s main teaching hospitals has almost doubled overnight after 40 “hidden beds” were included in the figures for the first time.

Some 74 patients were recorded as being on trolleys, chairs or additional beds at St Vincent’s hospital yesterday, the highest figure for any hospital since the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) started its Trolley and Ward Watch count in 2013.

While overcrowding nationally has started to ease, St Vincent’s recorded 34 patients on trolleys in its emergency department (ED) and another 40 additional patients in wards throughout the hospital. The overcrowding in the hospital has led to the cancellation of seven elective surgeries this week alone due to, the hospital said, “unprecedented pressure” on the emergency department.

Massaging the figures

INMO industrial relations officer Philip McAnenly accused the hospital of “massaging the figures” by failing to count additional beds on wards up to yesterday, and said the real level of overcrowding was still higher.

Rejecting the claim, the hospital said all patients transferred to wards were no longer waiting on trolleys and were correctly classified as “ward inpatients”.

Staff claim the hospital had a practice of not recording patients as being on a trolley if they believed they would be moved to a bed later in the day.

In practice, this meant patients did not turn up in the figures although they might be on a trolley up to 6pm. In some cases, patients were never actually transferred to the hospital, staff say.

Emergency department

“The numbers were artificially reduced to make it look better than it was,” Mr McAnenly said. “Many beds didn’t become available until late in the evening, so the patient remained in the emergency department all day but didn’t show up in the figures.”

A hospital spokeswoman denied the claim. However, she said: “Patients in ED are counted until they are assigned a bed. When a bed is identified, a patient is assigned and moved as rapidly as possible.”

The INMO count records additional patients in wards in addition to the emergency department. At staff meetings in St Vincent’s last week, nurses questioned why the hospital consistently recorded zero patients as being on trolleys in wards, when extra temporary beds were in place throughout the hospital, as many as 12 in some wards.