Minister for Health needs to get a handle on the crisis emerging in Tallaght Hospital A&E
Minister for Health needs to get a handle on the crisis emerging in Tallaght Hospital A&E - The Labour Party
Labour TD for Dublin South-West Ciarán Ahern has called on Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to urgently intervene in the growing crisis in Tallaght University Hospital’s Emergency Department.
Figures released by the hospital to Deputy Ahern show a 43% increase in wait-times in A&E over the last 5 years, growing from an average of 3.5 hours to 5 hours since 2020.
Deputy Ahern said:
“The A&E in Tallaght hospital has been a nightmare for years and under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael it’s only getting worse. An almost 50% increase in wait-times to be seen by a doctor in just 5 years is completely unacceptable.
“And that’s only where the patient is actually seen. We know that many people simply give up after waiting hours on end.
“I’m constantly hearing from people who have spent upwards of 12 hours waiting to be seen and then all too often have to go through the indignity of spending the night on a trolley in an overcrowded corridor because there isn’t enough space. I know of one patient who had to wait 48 hours in A&E to be seen.
“The brilliant staff in the hospital are doing their level best to accommodate everyone and the care, when received, is second to none, but they’re being stretched to their limits, facing enormous amount of pressure and stress with very limited resources.
“The Minister for Health needs to get a handle on this. The winter months will soon be approaching and the problem is only going to get worse unless urgent intervention happens now.
“The causes of these long wait-times are obvious – not enough beds in TUH, no public local injury unit, insufficient nursing home spaces and a serious lack of community care. There’s 40% fewer GPs in the hospital’s catchment area in Dublin South-West than the national average.
“Each of those issues is solvable but it will require leadership and commitment from Minister Carroll MacNeill. As a matter of urgency, we need to see additional onsite and offsite bed capacity for Tallaght Hospital delivered, and the construction of a new ward block must be at the top of the Minister’s list of priorities.”