Patient left in ambulance for 90 minutes waiting for hospital trolley

The scale of the crisis at University Hospital Galway was demonstrated by two shocking incidents this week.

In one, a patient was left waiting outside in an ambulance for 90 minutes before admission – because there wasn’t a trolley bed available for them.

And in another a 65 year old woman, who had been taken from her home in Tuam by ambulance, was discharged in her nightdress to get a bus home from Eyre Square.

The overcrowding at Emergency Departments across the country has seen Galway suffer its worst crisis ever, with up to 1,000 patients since New Year’s Eve alone.

UHG is one of five hospitals nationwide where nursing staff have taken or are contemplating taking industrial action to highlight their own work overload and the impact the crisis is having on patients.

Ambulances were backed up for over an hour on Tuesday night because there were no spare trolleys.

The result of a ballot taken last night (Wednesday) by members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) will be known on Monday.

Anne Burke, Clinical Manager of UHG’s ED and INMO spokesperson in Galway, said they had been flagging the overcrowding crisis for the past decade.

“This was not a question of a surge of patients. The ED had seen 980 patients by Monday since New Year’s Eve. It saddens me that 20 patients could leave the ED without being assessed. It is grossly unfair.

Portiuncula also experienced a crisis overcrowding at its ED with 55 patients on trolleys on Monday.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.