DUBLIN: Hospital management at the Mater Hospital in Dublin has been asked to intervene by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organization (INMO) after what it described as "dangerously understaffed and overcrowded conditions".
According to the union's daily Trolleywatch statistics, 40 patients at the city centre hospital are now without a bed at the time of the INMO warning.
The hospital is "no longer safe" for patients and workers, according to individuals on the ground in the Mater, according to INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations Maeve Brehony.
"INMO members in the Emergency Department and across the Mater are signalling that their workplace is no longer safe for the patients they are attempting to treat or the personnel who work there," she said.
"Day after day and night after night, our members are reporting that the nursing staff is overworked and unable to take even the smallest breaks, while the emergency department is overflowing. There are numerous ways in which this is dangerous.
Each ED should perform an urgent analysis to identify and address gaps and hazards, as stated in the HSE Winter Plan that was published yesterday. The Mater must move quickly to start this process.
In June of this year, we announced that, compared to under 40% of hospitals (16) in 2021, over 60% of acute hospitals (30) had an average bed occupancy above the globally recommended standard of 85% from January to March of this year.
The national average bed occupancy for these three months in 2022 was 90%, up from 81% in 2021, according to HSE statistics that Noteworthy got through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
Hospitals are typically thought to be able to operate safely and efficiently up to a bed occupancy of 85%.
For a response, the HSE has been contacted.
