Day of action to take place at Sligo hospital this Saturday

A demonstration, highlighting hospital overcrowding and the national hospital crisis is to take place at Sligo University Hospital, this Saturday, January 21, at 1pm.

Local campaigner Ciarán Tracey, stated: “People all over the country are furious over the continuing damage that is being done to our health service and to our health.

“Last week, our government, through the HSE, told the public to “consider all options” and to consider going to other medical providers, including pharmacists, rather than turning up at A&E.

“This is incredibly cynical, impractical and unhelpful to people who are very ill. The current and ongoing crisis has been caused by lack of capacity.”

“In five days last week alone, between the 9th and 13th [inclusive] of this month, the INMO Trolley Watch figures revealed that 122 people have were forced to wait on trollies in corridors or in wards within our general hospital, in Sligo, while awaiting a proper bed.”

Mr Tracey continued: “During the whole of last November, the number on trollies in Sligo was 706 patients. These are not mere statistics, they are our mothers, fathers, siblings and children, as well as our neighbours, who would not be going to A&E unless absolutely necessary”.

“With an average of 23.5 patients per day on trollies in November and 24.5 patients in the last five day’s count, there is no sign of any improvement; in fact, it’s getting worse”.

“The average waiting time to see a doctor in our A&E is 7.4 hours, which is anything but tolerable when people are ill and at their most vulnerable.

“Shockingly, at a national level, there were 931 patients on trollies on one day alone at the start of this year, the highest number without a hospital bed since the INMO began the count in 2006.

“In the last week, according to the HSE, 1,800 patients waited for over 24 hours to be seen in emergency departments. The crisis in A&Es is leading to excess deaths and to significantly damaged health to people right across the country.”

“It is hard to believe that there are now 6,000 less hospital beds than there were 15 years ago and that the government has actually closed down eight Accident and Emergency departments during that time. At present, there are 200 too few ICU beds, 30% too few GPs and there are 700 missing consultants in the health system. This is wholly unacceptable and unconscionable on the part of those who were elected to represent the people”.

“None of this has happened by accident. It is a direct result of years of cuts to staff, hospital beds & A&Es during a time of significant population increase. Our current Health Service was designed to cater for a population of 3.5 million people, when in fact we now have a population of 5.5 million people. Ireland doesn’t have the hospital beds, the ICU beds or the staff for its population. Major cuts implemented during austerity have not been reversed.”

The National Hospital Campaign is demanding reform of the HSE from the top down. Among the priorities are:
- Funding, to be focused on front-line services, not on layers of management.
- Fair pay, terms and working conditions to be provided to Staff, with immediate effect.
- Adequate provision of GPs for Primary Care.
- Step-down and home-care services to help patients leaving hospital.
- A complete review of the HSE policy of reducing A&E capacity in our hospitals.
- Smaller hospitals to be resourced, to provide much needed capacity.

“The National Hospitals Campaign is urging the people of Sligo and Leitrim to play their part in the National Campaign, by setting aside one hour on this coming Saturday, January 21, at 1pm. Please turn out in force outside of Sligo University (General) hospital (assembling at the junction of the Mall and Connaughton Road), with home-made placards, bearing individual messages / pleas to the government, to tell our government that “Enough is Enough”.
It is time to resolve the Hospital crisis.