Emergency medicine group rails against health spend

The treatment of elderly and ill people left on trolleys in hospital emergency departments will lead to a tribunal of inquiry at some stage in the future, the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) has predicted.

It pointed out 438 patients were on hospital trolleys on Tuesday when Budget 2017 was announced with 352 of these patients on trolleys in the country’s 29 emergency departments.

“At some point in the future it is likely that there will be a tribunal of inquiry into how ill, elderly and infirm patients are allowed to die . . . for the want of the necessary investment. This is not due to ignorance but to a lack of political and management will to solve a problem,” said the IAEM.

“The solution is so obvious: more bed capacity. The extra investment announced for the health service must take account of this,” it added.

Avoidable fatalities

The IAEM said there is clear evidence of the harm caused by emergency department overcrowding which it says results in an estimated 350 avoidable deaths annually in Ireland.

“There is simply no excuse for this lack of action and the crass indifference to the plight of these patients,” it said.

It added that in a developed country that spends €14.6 billion on the health service “this is simply unacceptable”.

“Many of these patients are elderly. Some in their 80s and 90s have been obliged to wait far in excess of 24 hours, which is even more unacceptable.

“The absence of significant capital investment in the health service’s decaying infrastructure and any real attempt to address the serious shortage of acute hospital beds is deeply disappointing. It suggests that the government is happy to lose yet more of its citizens to premature death and disability.”