'Please Santa, more doctors, more nurses, more beds' was one of the signs held at a protest demanding more resources for the Emergency Department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth today.
Organised by the ‘Safeguard Drogheda A&E Campaign,’ as more patients are expected to be brought by ambulance to the hospital instead of to Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, staff joined politicians outside the hospital for the lunchtime protest.
Michael O’Dowd, Aontu representative in Louth, who organised the protest, said, “the first principle in medicine is do no harm and I am afraid that the plans by the HSE management to move A&E patients from Navan to Drogheda from this week, without giving extra resources, is rash, reckless and dangerous.”
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He said: “Our message to our nurses, doctors and (the) ambulance service is we value your service and 'thank you.' To the HSE our message is clear: listen to the consultants, listen to the parents of sick children, listen to the sick and vulnerable who cannot be here today, listen to citizens of this town and invest in our frontline services before it is too late for many people.”
The Mayor of Drogheda Michelle Hall said: “We are here to add our voices to the consultants, the front line workers, the paramedics, nurses, healthcare workers who are under huge stress in our health system. Healthcare workers are overworked, under-resourced and over managed. They have fatigue after working through the global pandemic and now this Winter they have to deal with huge numbers arriving in the ED with respiratory illnesses, COVID and flu.”
Sinn Fein TD Imelda Munster said there is another option which is to put in the additional resources and recruiting more staff to Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan.
“That is an option they seem to be unwilling to look at. It is the most obvious option because it will serve the people of Navan and Meath area and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital will continue to serve the people of this region. Both hospitals are understaffed and under-resourced.”
Fellow party deputy Ruairi O’Murchu (SF) said: “We have fabulous services and fabulous staff here but they are under incredible pressure and we need to get them the supports that they require.”
He said the number of calls he receives about people and the service in the Lourdes being under severe pressure has “gone through the roof.”
Louth Labour TD Ged Nash said the hospital “is the single most important piece of social infrastructure in our community.’ Referencing the sign asking Santa for more staff and beds, he said, “frankly given the performance of the Minister for Health in relation to Navan and the implications of the bypass plan for Drogheda, I have more confidence and faith in Santa Claus than I have in the current Minister for Health.”
He said there are 16 vacant non consultant hospital doctor posts unfilled in the Lourdes hospital and staff in ancillary services including nurses, are “under severe pressure.”
A number of hospital and HSE staff were at the protest including Barbara Kelly, vice-chair of the Louth branch of Fórsa. She said, “we are at the coal front of all the patients coming in the door and the staff are absolutely on their knees.”
She said: “For the members we represent, we have 60 deficits in health and social care professionals and 15-20 existing deficits in clerical. These are existing deficits that have not been filled, never mind the pressure that Navan will bring onto us which is probably another 20.”
She said staff “cannot get tea breaks, they are not getting lunch breaks, they can’t cope with the existing pressures that are there. We are working hard with management to fill those vacancies. Alone there are 7 vacancies in the Emergency Department in terms of clerical, and that is without Navan coming on board. Staff are on their knees.”
In a statement the HSE said there is a new ambulance protocol that is due to take effect from Wednesday at 8am. It said, 'A key challenge for the health service is the consistent and sustained increase of emergency attendances and admissions, and this is happening in hospitals throughout the State. Over 1.27m people have attended emergency departments so far this year (as of 20 November), many of them frail, elderly people with varied and complex healthcare needs. Compared with 2019 (pre-COVID) there has been 7.2 percent increase overall in ED attendances.'
It also said, 'Emergency departments always prioritise and treat the sickest patients first, by means of a standardised and well validated process known as triage. This means that patients requiring less urgent care may have to wait longer times to be seen and this includes patients who arrive by ambulance, not requiring emergency and urgent care. National Ambulance Service and emergency department staff work together to ensure patients are transferred to hospital care as quickly and as safely as possible. There has been very significant investment in the health services in the last number of years and this has provided additional beds, staffing and equipment across hospital and community services.'
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