The Medical Director of a major Northern Ireland Hospital has called for the return of a functioning Government in the Province after a woman died after waiting hours on a trolley in its emergency department.
Medical Director, Chris Hagan said at times there were 50-to-60 patients waiting for an emergency department bed over that weekend.
“This is a regional issue about how crowded our emergency departments are, about the problem of delayed discharges from hospital and undoubtedly a functioning Executive, having oversight of that and supporting Departmental colleagues, is really important, particularly around budgets,” Dr Hagan (pictured) said.
“A functioning Government is particularly important as the health service is entering one of the most difficult winters that any of us will have faced.”
The woman, who was 77 years old, died while lying on the trolley at the Royal Victoria Hospital’s emergency department, having been brought by ambulance from a nursing home.
Sources described the department as overcrowded and extremely noisy.
Dr Hagan said the hospital’s thoughts were with the woman’s family “and obviously we will look into this further”.
“The emergency department on Saturday and Sunday was exceptionally busy with huge numbers of attendances — 50-to-60 patients were waiting for a bed so sometimes patients were on trolleys,” he said.
“Of course in an ideal situation, if a patient is end-of-life we would want them to be in a room on their own with their family around them, but you have to understand the current pressure that the system is under; sometimes the care that we provide would not be exactly what we want.”
Belfast, 16 November 2022
