What is life like for those working in and receiving treatment at Ireland’s regional hospitals? That’s the question we asked on The Pat Kenny Show.
With three reports from around the country, and a special medical panel Friday Forum discussion to finish the week, we examined life at hospitals across Ireland, including reports from Waterford, Drogheda and Roscommon.
INTERACTIVE: Where are overcrowding and waiting lists the worst in Ireland?
On Monday morning we reported from University Hospital Waterford. You can read more and listen to the full report here.
On Tuesday morning on The Pat Kenny Show we're reporting on Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda. The hospital serves patients from Louth, Meath, some areas in north County Dublin and even Cavan and Monaghan. The wide spread of cover has been made all the more taxing on the hospital by recent cut backs at smaller hospitals in Navan, Monaghan and Dundalk.
The issue of overcrowding at the hospital largely stems from the decision to build a regional hospital in Navan in the latter part of the last decade. The planned hospital never came to fruition but the corresponding cut backs at hospitals around the region went ahead. Our Lady of Lourdes was subsequently left to cover the gaps in the healthcare service in the region.
Its Emergency Department is Ireland's most overcrowded, with 769 patients above capacity in July 2015.
Newstalk reporter Richard Chambers has travelled to Drogheda and on Tuesday morning will bring us his report, detailing among other issues:
- How patients plead with their GP to not send them to the Emergency Department at Our Lady of Lourdes, such is the chaos at the hospital
- How staff at the hospital are given 'resilience training' to work at the hospital, and many suffer from nightmares, lack of sleep and high stress levels
- How promises to address overcrowding by October appear to be in danger of missing their targets
- Why Our Lady of Lourdes tops the list of spending on agency staff, but the high levels of expenditure are not fixing the problem of chronic staff shortages
- What the HSE and management at the hospital plan to do, or are currently implementing, as a solution to the hospital's range of serious problems
You can listen back to the report here:
Read more about Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda in the infographic below.
If you want to tell us of your own experiences in Ireland's hospitals get in touch by emailing us at: [email protected]
