Trolleys in hallways not our biggest problem.

A number years back, during my schooldays, I went Cork University Hospital's A&E department with severe stomach pain and after more than 10 hours of waiting, which was briefly interrupted by short conversations with a doctor and one scan, I was informed that my condition was in fact caused by a build up of gas. Fast-forward 2 years and a dozen or so GP visits for the same stomach pain, a new young doctor who was covering for my holidaying GP informed me and my mother that I would need to be immediately brought to A&E as I had an Inflamed appendix which had been flaring up and down again since my first visit to A&E.

Upon arriving at the hospital, and after a little waiting, I was brought in to be seen by a doctor who claimed he could find nothing in his examination and was promptly by a verbal barraging at the hands of my parents and as a result of this I was seen by the interns superior who, after several more scans, diagnosed me with appendicitis and was to be admitted. I then spent several hours lying on a trolley in the A&E depatment whilst awaiting a bed.

Now fast-forward another 6 years and the news reports tell us Tallaght Hospital has been warned that if it continues to place patients on trolleys in and around its A&E department, it will be shut down. According to a report on RTE's News at One, an unannounced visit by four inspectors from the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) on this past Wednesday has resulted in the hospital being told that it must stop the practice from September 1st as it poses an unacceptable and serious risk to patients.

Is this really a risk? How many patients conditions have worsened due to their being treated on trolleys in a hallway? Compare the answer to that of the following questions. How many patients conditions have worsened due to being made to wait for hours before being seen by a doctor? How many have worsened from the lack of concentration of a doctor who has been on duty for 48 hours or more? How many have worsened from having to wait to be treated by a person who is actually qualified to treat a patient? And how many patients have worsened or died in understaffed and under supplied hospitals?

I'm not saying the trolleys are safe and should stay but maybe if HIQA really want to make our hospitals safer places then perhaps looking at the basic laws of physics is the best way around it. If a patient needs a place to lie down and wait to be admitted then perhaps HIQA should recommend funding be provided for the hospital to purchase more beds. Perhaps the over-worked doctors and nurses of our nations hospitals should be given a break or at the very least less hours and "the powers that be" hire new doctors and nurses to ease the pressure. Perhaps with extra doctors and nurses in our hospital then more patients will be treated faster and we will have no need for the dreaded trolley in our A&E hallways in the first place.