Crowe more resouces needed after Coroner Highlights Hospital Failure
Dublin South West TD Seán Crowe has supported comments made today by Dublin county coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty who described Tallaght Hospital as being a “very dangerous place to be for anybody, let alone a sick patient”
Crowe, who lives in Tallaght has long campaigned for additional resources for the Hospital and said that the views expressed by Dr Geraghty represented a ‘staggering failure’ on the part of Senior Hospital Management, the Health Service and successive Governments.
Dr Geraghy’s comments were made after Tallaght resident Thomas Walsh died last March after being admitted to Tallaght Hospital with severe ankle pain.
The Court heard that a ‘virtual ward’ was created, leaving large numbers of sick patients in hospital corridors while awaiting a bed in the hospital system.
Deputy Crowe said:
“Last year 93,000 patients were treated in Tallaght’s Accident & Emergency Unit, the highest number of people treated in any hospital in the State and nearly twice the number compared to Beaumount Hospital, which treated 52,000 people.
These figures give us a snapshot and some indication of the pressure that Tallaght Hospital and its staff are currently working under.
Sadly the Health Care system and allocation of resources doesn’t reflect any of this.
Currently Tallaght Hospital has approxmately 100 Consultants yet Beaumont which is clearly not as busy has 139 and normally there is there is 3 or 4 trainee Doctors under each Consultant.
Looking at these figures it would appear that Tallaght is clearly getting a raw deal.
It is the busiest Trauma hospital in Ireland, yet this is not reflected in the funding it receives and there is a shortage of personnel throughout the hospital system. The medical staff who are currently employed are stretched to the absolute limit and this inevitably leads to systems failures that result in patients suffering.
Peoples’ lives are being endangered.
Sick patients lying on trolleys in A&E lack any privacy and are being stripped of their dignity with a lack of basic sanitary facilities.
““There is also no out of hours GP connected with Tallaght Hospital to treat anyone calling to the hospital with minor ailments.
To compound matters further, there is a shortage of Radiologists,Physios,Dematoligists and Clerical staff due to the Public Service jobs embargo
“The death of Mr Walsh and the Coroners comments that described Tallaght Hospital as a dangerous place is a damning inditement on Hospital Management, this State and its Healthcare delivery system.
Mr Walsh from Elmcastle in Kilnamanagh,Tallaght went into the hospital with a minor ailment and died in the Accident and Emergency ward.
“This tragic case has highlighted an appalling failure in the Tallaght Hospital system.and if we do not urgently address the current staff shortages and the failures in the system, it will invitably lead to more tragedies.
“The proposed changes to be introduced in the Hospital Accident & Emergency that will see a limit of 25 patients on trolleys and other trolleys being shifted to overcrowded wards will not solve any of the dangers faced by patients like Mr Walsh.
“Shifting trolleys to overcrowded nursing wards that lack many resources and the attention to care wont work.
” The reality is that Tallaght Hospital needs new resources and new staff, if it is to fullfill its Health care obligations.