More than 100 deaths a year in Dublin hospitals could be attributed to overcrowding in A&E departments if the findings of an Australian study were replicated here, a doctor told the Oireachtas health committee yesterday.
The study found that 120 deaths in Perth hospitals in 2003 were linked to hospital and A&E overcrowding. Perth's population of 1.4 million is similar to that of the Greater Dublin Area, said Dr James Binchy, emergency medical consultant in University College Hospital, Galway.
He told the Joint Committee on Health that overcrowding could account for up to 30 per cent excess mortality in hospitals.
Dr Binchy was part of an Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) delegation which met the politicians yesterday.
Dr Gerry Lane, emergency medicine consultant at Letterkenny General Hospital, pointed to a second Australian study which found that about 13 deaths a year in one Canberra hospital were linked to emergency department overcrowding.
This figure was equivalent to the number of road fatalities in the city, which Dr Lane said was "very disturbing".
He said keeping Irish patients in overcrowded A&E departments over a "protracted period of time results in added deaths".
Dr Binchy said the problems with A&E overcrowding were directly linked to the lack of acute beds in hospitals.
A patient's waiting time in an A&E department had a direct correlation with the availability of acute beds, even if a patient did not require a bed.
He said it was a myth that the demand for A&E services was unpredictable. Some 75 per cent of patients came to A&Es between 8am and 8pm.
He also rejected the emphasis on the problem of drunk people attending emergency departments. Drunk people were "a small percentage of the problem" and they were still entitled to treatment. Even if they were all removed from the system, elderly people would still be on trolleys.
He said at least 3,000 extra acute beds were needed, and this would still not equate to the OECD average.
Finbarr Fitzpatrick, IHCA secretary general, said we had the "historically lowest ever" ratio of acute beds per 1,000 population.
Dr Josh Keaveny, consultant anaesthetist at Beaumont Hospital, said he was "tired and sick" of politicians falsely claiming that consultants refused to work extra hours or discharge patients at weekends.
Five years ago consultants had offered to look at working longer hours and providing more efficiency but had been told by Department of Health officials that "it would be difficult to bring all the other people on board".
Dr Keaveny also criticised the focus on the high salaries for consultants. He received a €130,000 salary at Beaumont Hospital, and this was not highly paid considering his experience and the hours he worked.
The introduction of a "public only" contract for consultants would be "an absolute disaster" as it would create a huge gap between public and private healthcare.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation delivered 10,000 postcards to Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday as part of its campaign to improve A&E conditions. Patients and members of the public had written messages on the cards complaining about overcrowding and excessive delays in getting a hospital bed.
