Cork nurse dreading flu season claiming hospital overcrowding 'not just a winter crisis'
In her more than 40 years nursing, Margaret Frahill has just put down one of the toughest weeks of her career.
“There are people in their 90s actually apologising to us for being in the emergency department (ED),” she says.
A senior nurse manager at the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork city, Margaret, who is also a member of the executive of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) says nurses are also “spending their days apologising” for having to leave people on trolleys.
Patients are complimenting us on our hard work but we are not proud of what is happening at the moment. We are trying to hold the health service together.
People are at their most vulnerable and there is no dignity in lying on a trolley, she says.
In saying that, the expectation among the public at this stage, she says, is that they will end up on a trolley in the ED - even though it increases the chance of patients deteriorating or of contracting infection.
Margaret says there has been “no let up at all this year, it’s not just a winter crisis”. She says the delays in treating patients are affecting ambulance crews too, who cannot leave the ED until the patient is transferred into hospital care.
Margaret says the strain is so great on staff, that young nurses “are getting burnt out quickly, or leaving the health service.”
“Many will not stick the pressure we are under,” she says.
The pressure is compounded by MUH’s city centre location so they get a lot of patients with addiction issues. She says the city is in the grip of an addiction crisis. Increasing numbers of patients with mental health issues are also presenting to the ED.
Margaret says they are dreading when flu season kicks in, given that it’s been particularly virulent in the southern hemisphere and is due to hit here, full force, shortly.
She says there’s a shortage of beds in the community for patients awaiting transfer.
“The INMO has been highlighting these problems for years and successive governments have done nothing. We are all doing our best in MUH, but it’s not good enough anymore,” Margaret says.
