Cavan A&E - time for stalling is over

The Emergency Department of Cavan General Hospital has been operating in crisis mode for years now. People have grown accustomed to the spectacle of patients lying on trolleys or slumped in chairs as they engage in the long wait for a hospital bed. The onset of the economic crisis in the autumn of 2008 has delayed action which might have been taken when money was flush. However, it is evident that the nurses staffing the unit have had enough. It is a difficult decision for a nurse to vote for industrial action given that patient care is their vocation and they must be believed when they say that the unit is currently unsafe. Today the HSE management and the nurses' union, the IMNO, meet with the threat of a work stoppage or work to rule looming over the proceedings. To make matters worse the industrial action if it does take place will be during the course of the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil. It is too soon to say that the 'die is cast' and that industrial action will go ahead but the indications are not good. The situation at the Emergency Department has been allowed continue for too long. There were plans for the unit to be expanded and what has happened to those proposals? The IMNO are insistent that Cavan General Hospital does not have a sufficient complement of beds to meet the demands placed upon it - demands that have grown quite substantially as a result of Monaghan Hospital ceasing to be an acute general hospital and the further downgrading of Navan hospital. The HSE seem to be continually operating a rearguard action as they respond to crisis after crisis in hospitals across the country. Maybe now is the time for them to be innovative and undertake a positive initiative here in Cavan. Increase the size of an Emergency Department designed for different times, staff it accordingly with the necessary doctors and nurses. Also most importantly increase the bed complement and required staffing of the hospital so that it can effectively meet the challenges facing it in caring for the people of Cavan, Monaghan and adjoining areas of Leitrim, Longford and Meath. It is unacceptable for hospital management and staff to have to cope with insufficient resources. As well as the misery inflicted on sick people as a result of their having to lie on trolleys and the deep annoyance it causes to their relatives - what has been ongoing at the hospital is totally unsatisfactory from the HSE point of view in that it leaves them open to adverse incidents that can occur in stressful, pressurised situations. A solution must be found to this deeply unhappy state of affairs which has overshadowed all of the good work that is being done day in and day out at Cavan General Hospital and which is deeply appreciated by patients and the community at large. The time for decisive action starts today.