CRUELTY is being inflicted on children and adults at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
Staff are said to be despairing regarding patient care and safety as a consequence of closed beds, a shortage of nurses, the recruitment embargo and the “unavailability of decision makers”. The organisation has said that Monday night was one of the most difficult faced by staff, as 22 patients were waiting in the Emergency Department for beds at 9pm, increasing to 36 in the early hours of the following morning.
Eight of these patients were young babies and children.
Cots had to be erected within the area to cope with a lack of available beds in the paediatric unit.
Industrial Relations Officer Mary Fogarty, told the Limerick Post: “Staff are demoralised by having to continuously try to cope with the unacceptable overcrowding in the Emergency Department, and also throughout the whole hospital, where additional beds and trolleys were placed, in an attempt to alleviate this dangerous situation.
“The further centralisation of hospital services in the Mid West cannot now proceed while situations like today’s are arising daily at the hospital, placing both patients and staff at risk”.
