The head of one of Ireland’s most overcrowded hospitals warned that the facility was “unsafe” for patients — just months after a senior doctor resigned over the situation.
Beaumont Hospital chief executive Liam Duffy made the claim in an August 28 letter to staff, warning that emergency department overcrowding and chronic delays in sending home patients on wards, was severely hampering care standards.
On the day the head of the hospital sent the correspondence, he said 58 patients were waiting in the emergency department, including one who had not been treated for 44 hours.
Another 73 patients being treated elsewhere in the hospital, who were fit to be sent to step-down facilities such as nursing homes, were unable to leave due to waiting list problems, further hampering Beaumont’s ability to cope.
In a plea to hospital staff, Mr Duffy wrote that it was “in the interest of the safety of all patients” that the hospital “regain stability as a matter of urgency” as the current situation was “unsafe”. While a spokesperson for Beaumont last night said the problems were being resolved, the private correspondence from the head of the hospital to staff was just the latest in a list of patient safety issues to hit the facility. The most recent problem occurred in May, when the hospital’s then clinical director Prof Shane O Neill resigned due to “significant clinical risks” at the facility.
The senior physician raised specific concerns about how psychiatric patients suffering extreme episodes were initially assessed in the overcrowded emergency department instead of in a new nearby 44-bed psychiatric unit, saying the practice was “entirely unsafe and indefensible”.
Last month, the hospital’s emergency department had to be shut down for four hours after a patient barricaded himself and two unrelated individuals into a side-room before setting the area on fire. In a statement, a Beaumont spokesperson said despite the concerns, problems at the hospital were being addressed.
“If and when a significant capacity constraint arises, the situation is typically escalated to all consultants to highlight the issue and to request their immediate intervention and assistance in expediting the discharge of any suitable patients.
“That is how the hospital manages its resources responsibly and appropriately to deal with the demands placed on it at different times,” the spokesperson said.
Date: September 08, 2014