Patient in UHL ED forced to call ambulance to get pain relief

A Clarecastle man suffering from a collapsed lung has claimed he was left “crying in pain” for hours at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) before he received medication after contacting the ambulance control centre for urgent assistance.

Michael McCarthy, Clarecastle (24) was rushed by ambulance to UHL last Friday at 5am where a tube was inserted into his body after he was cut open as part of an emergency surgical procedure.

Mr McCarthy has a medical condition since aged 21, that causes blisters on his lungs, which regularly burst, resulting in the collapse of his lungs.

In an interview with the Clare Champion, Mr McCarthy recalled requesting pain relief by pressing a patient buzzer on Saturday morning from 8.30 am to 1pm, but couldn’t get any health professional to administer it.

He claimed staff told him they would be back with pain relief in a few minutes. However, this never materialised.

“I was crying in pain so I had to ring the ambulance service to try and get them to help me because the hospital wasn’t helping me.

“There were tears rolling down my face. I rang 999 at around 1pm, I spoke to ambulance control and told them I was in severe pain and they rang the hospital. I finally got pain relief at approximately 1.15pm.”

On Sunday during the day, the pain was tolerable so he didn’t request any medication, but did receive some on Sunday night.

After spending about 24 hours on a trolley, he got a bed in a ward in the early hours of Saturday morning at about 6.30am.

He also expressed grave concern about chronic overcrowding in the ED at UHL.

“It is an absolute joke what was happening in the Accident and Emergency Department. There aren’t enough doctors and nurses to look after patients in the ED.

“People were begging to be taken to the toilet for two or three hours. Even though I was in severe pain and could barely move myself, I had to get up and bring an elderly woman to the toilet after she was asking to be taken to the toilet for two hours.”

“People were crying in distress for hours because they were bursting to go to the toilet and were afraid they would soil themselves.

“I saw another woman who was about 35 with a split head who was calling for help in the ED for about 20 minutes,” he claimed.

“Why was so much money spent on a new ED, if there are not enough doctors and nurses to run it,” he asked.

The number of patients on trolleys in UHL increased from 55 on Friday to 71 on Monday before they fell again to 53 on Wednesday.

This compared to 31 patients on trolleys in Sligo University Hospital and Tallaght Hospital on Monday and 47 in University Hospital Galway.

Figures concerning the number of patients left without a bed in UHL are consistently the highest in the country.

Mr McCarthy’s claims come hot on the heels of a recent admission from Health Minister Stephen Donnelly he is concerned about the “significant risk” to patients attending the ED in (UHL), which was identified in a recent report.

Minister Donnelly outlined a compliance plan has been developed by the UL Hospitals’ Group containing short-, medium- and long-term actions to bring about compliance with the relevant HIQA standards.

The minister recently met with senior officials from the HSE recently to discuss the issues in UHL and the immediate responses required to tackle the pressures currently being faced by all 29 EDs across the country.

“I have requested the HSE to urgently commence the implementation of short-term measures to deal with the current challenges in UHL ED. Senior PMIU management were on-site again recently, supporting local hospital management.

“The hospital has said that short- and medium-term actions include the redeployment of nursing staff with experience to the ED; reviewing nurse staff levels within the ED; making more effective use of the capacity available in St. John’s, Ennis, Nenagh and Croom to support UHL; developing an over-75s assessment area in the ED; and re-establishing the Acute Medical Unit and Surgical Assessment Unit pathways.”

The Oireachtas Health Committee has requested the UL Hospitals’ Group to a meeting to discuss chronic overcrowding at UHL following a damming HIQA inspection and claims the ED “poses a danger to patients”.

An unannounced HIQA inspection on March 15 found the “overcrowded and understaffed emergency department posed a significant risk to the provision of safe, quality, person-centred care and to the health and welfare of people receiving care in the department”.

One of the 60 patients boarding in the Emergency Department at UHL was waiting more than 116 hours for a hospital bed on the day of inspection.

Inspectors who visited UHL also found a second was waiting over 85 hours and a third was waiting 71 hours. Hospital management told inspectors that all three patients were awaiting suitable inpatient isolation facilities.

The UL Hospitals’ Group stated it is unable to comment on individual cases, due to its ethical and legal obligations to respect and protect the privacy of all patients who attend hospitals, and of their staff.

Any patient dissatisfied by their experience in our hospitals is encouraged to make an official complaint in confidence via Your Service Your Say at yoursay@hse.ie.

More generally, the spokesman admitted significant demand on the Emergency Department in recent days has contributed to long wait times.

The group apologises to all patients currently facing long wait times in its ED.

Over the seven-day period concluding on Tuesday, August 16, there was an average 220 attendances every day at the ED. This exceeds the 210 average daily attendances during 2021, their busiest year on record.

The group appeals to members of the public to consider all their care options, including GP, out-of-hours GP, pharmacy and Injury Units at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s hospitals, before presenting to their ED. The ED remains open 24-7 for emergency care.

In relation to pain management more generally, patients in UHL who participated in the National Inpatient Experience Survey over recent years have reported high levels of satisfaction on how staff helped them to control their pain.

The ED has also introduced initiatives such as nurse-led analgesia at triage.