A Donegal family has spoken out after their elderly father was forced to sit for 26 hours in the Letterkenny Hospital Emergency Department (ED) before getting a bed.
The 86-year-old, who had been referred by his doctor, checked into ED at just after 5pm but didn’t get a bed until around 6pm the following evening. He had to sit on a seat during that time as there wasn’t even a trolley available.
The government’s target is for patients over 75 to be admitted or discharged within six hours.
Speaking to Donegal Daily, a spokesperson for the family described the situation, which occurred earlier this week, as ‘inhumane.’
“To have him lying on a trolley is one thing, but for an 86-year-old ill, frail man to have to sit on a chair for 26 hours is simply inhumane – it’s a disgrace,” they said.
“There was at least one other elderly person in there at the same time waiting, so he was not alone. He almost passed out a number of times in ED the next morning with exhaustion. It’s dangerous to put an elderly person in that position.”
The family, however, were full of praise for hospital staff who they said ‘went beyond the call of duty.’
“The problem isn’t the staff, it’s the system. There seems to be no logical plan in place to address the issue.”
The incident comes less than a week after almost 80 Donegal GPs called on the Health Minister to take urgent action over dangerous delays there.
A letter, signed by 78 local practitioners, said they fear for patients’ lives under the stretched system.
The hard-hitting letter to Minister Stephen Donnelly told how GPs’ ‘hearts sink’ when they have to send elderly patients to the ED due to the ordeal that is ahead of them.
“We have patients who are refusing to attend the emergency department because they would “rather take their chances” and stay at home,” they said.
In other cases, they report that patients are leaving the ED and going home, sometimes on the advice of stretched ED staff, as the wait time will be too long.
“We have huge concerns regarding patient safety here and feel like it is an incident waiting to happen,” the letter said.
The letter called for immediate support for staff at the emergency department, who the GPs said are “working under extreme pressure and in unsafe conditions.”
The main concern, they said, is not about the standard of care that patients are receiving, but is about the timely access to that care.
Donegal Daily put a number of specific questions to The Saolta group, which oversees Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH).
However, they issued a generic response, similar to what had been sent to other news outlets in relation to the GP’s letter.
“There are many reasons that result in longer wait times such as volume of patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) and the requirement to prioritise, treat and care for the sickest and older cohort of patients and those with life threatening illnesses,” part of their statement read.
The group said it had directed additional staff to the emergency department in preparation of worsening conditions.
These range from three new consultants, to “approval” for a further eight nurses and a health care assistant, while an extra porter has been rostered to assist with admission and timely movements for diagnostics.
Saolta said there is also a ‘frailty at the front door’ team which assesses patients over the age of 75 years in the emergency department. It carries out a comprehensive assessment on older people reviewing alternative pathways to avoid admission or to allow early discharge.
It is also proceeding with plans to build an extension to the department which is being worked on with the HSE’s Estates department.
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