Nurse raises safety concerns after grandmother’s 14-hour ED wait
Posted 25 July 2023 - 14:04
Belfast hospital emergency department described as ‘chaotic’ and overcrowded, after nurse says he witnessed staff struggling to cope, dirty conditions and safety breaches
A nurse has told of patients being treated in packed corridors with staff working like it was a ‘war zone’, after taking his 92-year-old grandmother to a Belfast emergency department (ED).
Kieran McCormick, who visited the Royal Victoria Hospital ED with his grandmother on 19 July, says they faced ‘chaotic’ scenes on arrival.
Nurse witnessed ‘chaotic’ conditions during 11-hour wait in Belfast hospital
After an initial triage and blood tests, Mr McCormick says his grandmother was left waiting in a wheelchair in the main reception for 11 hours to see a doctor.
Eventually Mr McCormick asked if they could move to another area, after several patients attending with police became loud and aggressive.
‘My grandmother was becoming visibly distressed, so we requested to move, but it was like going from bad to worse,’ he says. ‘The corridors were packed with people lying on hospital beds.
‘For a woman in her nineties to be in the ED for 14 hours before being sent home, then being sent home at 3am, should not be happening full stop. It’s wholly inappropriate.’
Staff ‘struggling to cope’ with circumstances in emergency department
Mr McCormick, a registered nurse and former regulatory inspector, says he saw numerous safety breaches and infection control issues in the department, which is run by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.
He describes patients being treated in corridors next to open doors, unsecured oxygen tanks and dirty clinical areas, and says he feared nurses’ registrations were being put at risk as they struggled to cope with the situation.
‘Patients were not being provided with privacy or dignity. Clinical staff were being verbally abused by patients and relatives.’ He says while staff members were trying their best, they were in an impossible position and had ‘look of sheer despair on their faces’. Some told him the conditions were the worst they had seen in a long time, and it was like working in a ‘war zone’, he says.
Mr McCormick raised his concerns directly with the trust and later shared his experience on social media. He says he was told by senior staff that the ED currently has a vacancy rate of 40%. Latest figures published by Northern Ireland Health and Social Care show nursing and midwifery have the highest vacancy rate in the country, at 24.1%, with more than 1,830 unfilled posts.
His posts on social media gained the attention of RCN general secretary Pat Cullen and RCN Northern Ireland director Rita Devlin. The following day Ms Devlin visited the hospital herself to investigate the safety concerns.
Safety concerns raised after emergency department visit
Keiran McCormick says he raised the following issues in relation to his grandmother’s visit to the Royal Victoria Hospital emergency deparment:
- His grandmother was offered no food or water during the 14-hour visit
- She is aged 92 and was discharged at 3am
- The emergency department was severely overcrowded
- Clinical areas were dirty
- His grandmother was offered diazepam when she became irritable, for which Mr McCormick says there was no clinical need
- Patients were being treated in corridors
- Patients were being kept directly by the ambulance port and blocking access to clinical areas
- Oxygen tanks were unsecured
- Patients’ dignity and privacy were compromised
- Loud and abusive patients were causing distress to others
- Used intravenous equipment was left on drip stands
- Staff were ‘in despair’
‘Extraordinary pressures’ leave many patients ‘waiting far too long’
Ms Devlin told Nursing Standard she has significant concerns over patient safety at the hospital, including overcrowding and excessive numbers of patients waiting in corridors.
‘Overcrowding also creates infection control issues and undermines patient safety and dignity,’ she says. ‘We don’t have enough staff to look after patients, which is scandalous.
‘We are also extremely concerned about the mental health and well-being of a lot of our nursing staff and sickness levels are extremely high. I have spoken to some young, newly registered nurses who are leaving because they just can’t take the stress and pressure anymore.’
A spokesperson for Belfast Health and Social Care Trust said its staff are currently experiencing the ‘most extraordinary pressures they have ever encountered’ and it is working with Mr McCormick and the RCN.
‘Our staff do the very best they can for our patients every day during highly challenging conditions,' the spokesperson said.
‘We accept that, despite this, many patients are waiting far too long and we are very sorry this is their experience. Staff at every level within the trust work with total focus daily to ensure that patients get the highest possible level of care.’
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