IMO Calls for Urgent Action on Beaumont Hospital Emergency Department Overcrowding

The IMO has called for urgent action to address the unacceptable overcrowding situation in the Emergency Department of Beaumont Hospital. This morning, Friday 24th October, there were thirty nine admitted patients in the Department; this represents almost two hundred percent occupancy heading into the busy October Bank Holiday weekend.

As a result of this overcrowding patients, among them frail elderly patients, are forced to wait on chairs and trolleys before they can receive the care that they need. Patients should not have to endure such miserable and degrading treatment at any time, let alone when they are at their most vulnerable.

The committed Doctors who staff this Department cannot practice safe medicine in such overcrowded and unsafe conditions.

The IMO has written to the Hospital on three separate occasions in the last two months asking for engagement on this issue with a view to ensuring that the Emergency Department is in a position to cope with the typical surge in activity during the winter; the Hospital have not responded to any of our requests.

Given the clear lack of will, or capacity, among Hospital management to deal with this issue, it is imperative that senior management in the HSE, including the Director General, intervene to take the necessary steps to ensure that patients presenting at Beaumont Hospital receive the care that they need, without having to endure inordinate delays.

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