Staff at the Accident and Emergency Department at University College Hospital Galway have received orders that they are not to give patients waiting on trolleys any hot foods for health and safety reasons. Michelle McDonagh reports.
A spokeswoman for the Health Service Executive (HSE) West confirmed that the organisation's Health and Safety Officer has recommended that hot food should not be served to patients accommodated in the A&E Department at UCHG.
She said they were working with their catering services to make alternative arrangements.
The Health and Safety Officer was called to the department which was extremely busy on Wednesday with 24 patients waiting overnight on trolleys for admission to beds.
Irish Nurses Organisation (INO)spokeswoman, Ms Noreen Muldoon said the A&E Department was in absolute chaos this week and there were so many patients waiting on trolleys that staff could not move.
She said she had been in contact with hospital management over the health and safety recommendation and said it was a problem that would simply have to be overcome from the point of view of the INO.
Ms Muldoon said patients and relatives can become terribly stressed when they are waiting on trolleys, but the stress on the staff is continuous and that this latest recommendation only adds to their stress. "The staff are very upset over it and feel that they can't even give patients the basic right of having something hot to eat and drink while they wait."
Patients waiting for long periods on trolleys in the A&E Department are usually offered tea and coffee, toast, a hot lunch and an evening meal.
Members of the public are being warned that they can expect long delays at the Accident and Emergency Department at University College Hospital Galway which is extremely busy at the moment.
The HSE West spokesperson said Galway Regional Hospitals regretted that any patient would have to spend longer in their accident and emergency department than they would like.