IRELAND'S emergency rooms have not improved in 2017 according to new figures.
New data supplied by the HSE reveals that more than 9,206 people aged 75 and over have been kept waiting over 24 hours in Irish Emergency Departments, despite the government aiming to abolish such ‘trolley time’ earlier this year.
The HSE’s Service Plan for 2017 set targets to prevent anyone aged over 75 waiting longer than 24 hours in emergency rooms across the country.
At the time of the commitment, the target was criticised for not being ambitious enough.
The report from the HSE shows that up until 2nd November of this year, 9,206 people aged over 75 have been left waiting for over a day to be treated.
Ireland stands as the country with the longest waiting times recorded by patients in Emergency Departments when compared to every other country.
A breakdown of offending hospitals shows that University Hospital Limerick had the highest number of patients aged over 75 waiting more than 24 hours with 1,453 followed by the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin with 1,225 and Galway University Hospital with 1,100.
In response to this failure to reach its target, a HSE spokesperson said, “In respect of September 2017, 12,020 persons aged 75 years and older presented to our Emergency Departments (EDs). This represents an increase of ED attendances by this cohort of 5.7% when compared to September 2016. Of this 12,020 attendances, 781 or 6.5% experienced Patient Experience Times (PET) greater than 24hrs.”
In 2012, a Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report recommended that the total patient time spent in an emergency department should be less than six hours.
The current 24-hour target is aimed solely at those aged over 75 so it’s far from ambitious.
The National Health Service in the UK aims for all patients to be seen and dealt with within four hours – that’s 20 hours less than Ireland’s failed target and includes everybody – not just the most vulnerable.
Chairman and co-founder of the Irish Patients’ Association Stephen McMahon told said of the 500,000 people admitted to wards from the Emergency Department in the UK last month – only 53 patients had to wait more than 12 hours.
“The situation here is just not acceptable, I’m very concerned that this level of elderly people are waiting so long to be moved to an appropriate ward.”
“The very idea that keeping an older person, or indeed any person, on a trolley in an Emergency Department for 23 hours is acceptable is simply insulting to the dignity of our citizens.”
