Limerick Regional Hospital on the verge of meltdown

[nakatomi]

What ever happened to change the system where drunks were taken to the garda station to sleep IT off.
If these creatures are breaking the law, why are they not taken in by the gardai instead of offloading them on to an already glutted HSE system.
These drunks are now clogging up the A&E departments while the guards are sitting behind their desks.

Problem was that occasionally drunks have serious medical conditions, such as cerebral bleeds or diabetic coma, Gardai are not medically trained and should not be expected to care for people who essentially have a drug overdose.

[Fisherman1]

Simple solutions.

Five sets of beds/trollies.

1. Kids. No question. Top priority. No question.

2. Probably sick, damaged, assaulted, probably will survive.

3. Probably sick, probable bed blocker, probable estimate of productive life - nil.

4. Drunk, druggies, attempted suicides, domestic victims that will not prosecute (of which there are way too many).

5. Others.

Publish the list, colour code the selections, do this for a week and see the numbers of 3. 4. and 5 drop like stones in water.

Job done.

I have a weak instinct that a system like this might be in the minds of possible medical staff that may be in an imaginary selection of some of our A and E departments, maybe.

[spidermom]

Agreed...!!
The ones with little or nowt wrong usually do not hang around too long either!!.....

Problem was that occasionally drunks have serious medical conditions, such as cerebral bleeds or diabetic coma, Gardai are not medically trained and should not be expected to care for people who essentially have a drug overdose.

[patslatt]

I would say that if you spend more than 10 minutes in A&E you will witness plenty of patients abusing staff, sometimes in a fairly vile manner, who won't drop everything they're doing that second to take them out for a smoke. You don't have to be drunk or on drugs to be aggressive and antisocial. In fact I would hazard that somebody drunk or on drugs who is being aggressive and abusive is more likely in percentage to be seriously ill with something like a stroke or subdural brain haemorrhage than somebody who isn't intoxicted yet behaving in a similar manner.

I'm not standing up for them or defending the "drunks and druggies", just saying that if our medical professionals do not treat all patients in the same manner, some people will suffer.

Here's a scenario for you Pat. A relative of yours who wouldn't normally be a drinker goes on a big night out and has 6 or 7 drinks, on their way home they are set upon by muggers, or say trip going down steps. They are brought to the hospital with cuts and a headache and are disoriented. Being obviously intoxicated, they are sent to a wet room rather than the main A&E. They soon begin to "sleep it off". 3 hours later they have died from a subdural haemorrhage. How would you feel about that?

As someone who spends a lot of time working in A&E, these people drive me up the walls and I'd be delighted if I didnt have to deal with it. In your 20 somethingth hour up working they come in, are uncooperative and give you dogs abuse. Believe me, if there was anywhere else in the world you could send them at that moment, I'd be up for it, but because I've seen the other side and know how sick they can be, I couldn't justify it.

People of average good character can be messy and annoying when very drunk as one can see occasionally even in well managed pubs but their behaviour usually falls short of antisocial. A small minority can become mentally disturbed but that is not necessarily antisocial.

When a medical person encounters seriously antisocial behaviour from a person who is not seriously ill,the medical person shouldn't put up with it and threaten to deny treatment.When the antisocial person is seriously ill,he or she should be reminded that his health is in the hands of the medical person.

[Ó Donnchadha]

The Greater Boston area has a population of just over 4.6 million approximately the population of the whole Irish State with the city itself's population being well over 600,000, the Limerick urban area has a population of around 90,000, the two hospitals in Limerick city, St John's Hospital (A&E 8am-6pm Mon-Fri) and the Mid-West Regional Hospital (A&E 24/7) with Ennis and Nenagh Hospitals providing non-acute admittance serve an area of perhaps a population of 250,000.

Thats good to know, I understand your from Limerick. All hospitals in Boston and elswhere in the states are always 24/7. In Boston we are lucky to have some of the best teaching hospitals in the world, i.e. Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel and many others.


Even the more urban hospitals have their niche, if one is shot or stabbed, they are taken to Boston Medical center, they have one of the best triage emergency rooms in the nation. They tend to get all the shooting victims . The major hospitals also have a helicopter landing pad in case of severe trauma.

[nakatomi]

Thats good to know, I understand your from Limerick. All hospitals in Boston and elswhere in the states are always 24/7. In Boston we are lucky to have some of the best teaching hospitals in the world, i.e. Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel and many others.


Even the more urban hospitals have their niche, if one is shot or stabbed, they are taken to Boston Medical center, they have one of the best triage emergency rooms in the nation. They tend to get all the shooting victims . The major hospitals also have a helicopter landing pad in case of severe trauma.

US spends nearly 3 times the ammount we spend on health care. When emergency departments there get overcrowded they can go on bypass.

[ger12]

US spends nearly 3 times the ammount we spend on health care. When emergency departments there get overcrowded they can go on bypass.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/...E65M0SU2010062
"U.S. scores dead last again in healthcare study"