St James’s Hospital bans taxis from entrance following abuse

St James’s Hospital in Dublin has banned taxis from outside its main entrance after staff were repeatedly subjected to verbal intimidation and racial abuse by taxi-drivers squabbling for fares.

Citing “unacceptable behaviour”, the hospital authorities said there has been “multiple incidents of verbal intimidation, racial abuse and generally antisocial behaviour demonstrated” in front of patients.

Hospital staff, particularly those staff trying to ensure that the entry into the hospital is kept clear, are the most at risk of abuse, the Dublin Midlands hospital group, which includes St James’s, said this week.

Sinn Féin councillor Ray McHugh, who raised the unofficial rank’s closure this week, claimed the problems were caused by drivers “skipping the queue” for passengers and “aggro” between different groups of drivers.

Taxis previously used an area outside the entrance as a “wait” area but this was redesignated as a set-down and pick-up area in 2011. The hospital said the change was made “out of necessity” arising from a significant number of serious risk incidents caused by taxis. These included double parking on a single-lane road, illegal parking on adjacent pavements and consistent blocking of the road and main entrance to the hospital.

This resulted in major congestion and difficulties for patients, ambulances and general public gaining access to the hospital, the hospital group told the Dublin Mid-Leinster Regional Health Forum this week.

There were also capacity issues due to the way drivers operated the wait area, according to the hospital, which resulted in taxis not being available outside core working hours and during bad weather.

Undue stress

Mr McHugh, in his question, said the removal of the taxi-rank was causing undue stress for senior citizens and patients and ask for it to be reopened.

Visitors to the hospital are now advised to make their own arrangements by using freephones in the main entrance, discharge area and the emergency department.

In another questions at the forum, Cllr Tommy McKeigue asked what action the HSE could take to make sure “Granny and Mammy are not shoved [to] one side” while large numbers of young people seek treatment for alcohol and substance use on St Patrick’s night.

Ireland East Hospital Group said it tried to facilitate family members when patients are being treated in ED but when departments are busy, the number of family members was restricted, usually to one.