Eleven accident and emergency units at hospitals across the State are to be inspected by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) in coming weeks.
The inspections, announced by the HSA in a statement yesterday, take place against a backdrop of ongoing overcrowding in A&E units.
Overcrowding continued yesterday with the Irish Nursing Organisation claiming there were 339 patients on trolleys early in the day. The Health Service Executive said the numbers fell to 248 by afternoon.
Both nurses and consultants have said the ongoing overcrowding poses risks to patients. Acting on these concerns the HSA wrote to all 39 hospitals in the State with A&E units in January asking them to carry out written risk assessments on their units. They had until last Friday to do so, at which point the HSA said it had a team of inspectors assembled to examine the condition in units for itself.
Inspections begin next week and should be complete by April 8th. The units to be inspected include those at the Mater, Beaumont, Blanchardstown, Wexford, Clonmel, the Mercy in Cork, Limerick Regional, University College Hospital in Galway, Sligo, Drogheda and Naas.
HSA inspectors have a range of powers to act against unsafe workplaces under the Welfare at Work Act of 1989.
They can issue improvement directions, an improvement notice, or even prohibition notices where inspectors conclude activities in a workplace involve a risk of serious personal injury. A notice of this kind would direct that activities cease until matters were remedied.
Meanwhile, the A&E forum is due to meet again today to discuss the ongoing overcrowding which Minister for Health Mary Harney says will be alleviated in coming months by a special €70 million initiative.
