Ambulance personnel in Co Clare had to undertake a round-trip of more than 900km to Tipperary and Cork during one 12-hour shift over the weekend while other ambulance crews were delayed at hospital emergency departments, the trade union Siptu has said.
The union said on Sunday that the “overcrowding crisis in emergency departments was causing chaos for ambulance professionals across the country”.
Siptu maintained that ambulance crews were facing delays of three and a half to seven hours outside hospital emergency departments, while waiting to handover patients they had transferred to the unit.
Union health division organiser Paul Bell said: "While the HSE and Department of Health are responding to some areas of the overcrowding crisis, primarily by attempting to boost the number of beds available in hospitals, there seems to be little consideration or emergency planning to make sure ambulances are kept on the road and readily available for communities."
"Over the weekend, we had the absurd situation where Siptu members working a 12-hour shift in an ambulance base in Co Clare were dispatched on a 901km round-trip to Clonmel and back to Youghal due to local resources being held up in Tipperary, while ambulances from Kilkenny bases were dispatched to emergencies in Cork."
He said the “chaotic system” was “not only bad for patients and driving up ambulance waiting times”, it was also “having detrimental effect on the health and wellbeing of our members with many ambulance professionals continuously exposed to long shift over-runs and unsatisfactory rest and break times”.
Mr Bell said at the end of November the union requested that the HSE and the Department of Health agree a protocol governing the handover of patients at hospital emergency departments but that this did not happen.
"Siptu representatives are demanding that the Minister for Health Simon Harris, the Department of Health and HSE take immediate and effective action to relieve the immense pressure being experienced by ambulance professionals across the country," he said.
Overcrowding
Meanwhile, nurses’ representatives held talks with HSE chiefs in the south on Sunday to deal with overcrowding in the two largest hospitals in Cork.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said Cork University Hospital (CUH) and Mercy University Hospital were operating "beyond their limits" and that they expect the situation to get worse next week.
The INMO said emergency measures were required to deal with overcrowding at the hospitals.
On Friday, overcrowding at CUH had reached record levels with 73 patients who required admission having to wait on trolleys and on wards for a bed.
In a joint statement after their meeting on Sunday, the INMO and the South/South West Hospital Group said additional measures to improve bed capacity had been agreed.
“Such measures include the cancellation of elective surgery, stopping non-emergency admissions and sourcing extra bed capacity from the public and private sectors.
“In the context of the current pressures facing the South /South West Hospital Group, all nursing posts that are sanctioned can be recruited and are proceeding.”
The nurses’ union and the South / South West Hospital Group said talks would resume on Wednesday, January 8th “to allow consideration of the issues raised by the INMO particularly delegation of authority to recruit at the hospital level, and agreement on a funded 2020 HSE workforce plan for nursing and midwifery”, the statement said.
