Hospital patient representatives are to ask the Government to abolish charges of €55 per day levied on patients who are spending days on trolleys in accident and emergency departments.
The Patients Together organisation, which has been lobbying for improved accident and emergency services, last night criticised hospitals for sending bills to patients for their time on trolleys or chairs while awaiting admission to a bed.
Under Department of Health rules patients undergoing treatment in public hospitals face charges of €55 a day up to a maximum of €550 a year.
Patients Together spokeswoman Jeanette Byrne said patients who were on trolleys were considered to have been admitted but were receiving the daily charge bills. Patients who had to wait on trolleys or chairs for several days before getting a bed should not be charged as if they had one.
Patients Together also called for panic buttons to be issued for patients on trolleys and chairs in A&E departments to allow them to contact staff.
Ms Byrne said elderly patients were often frightened by their experiences in the units, particularly where visiting times had been curtailed because of overcrowding.
"Patients have complained that they cannot raise the attention of staff to get simple things like bed pans. Some other patients have complained about their property being stolen, odd-looking characters hanging around and drunks falling on top of them," she said.
The call for panic buttons comes in the wake of concerns raised by the family of one man, who alleges he was harassed by another patient while in the Mater hospital's A&E unit.
Ms Annie Talbot yesterday told of how her brother, John Glynn (67), had been receiving oxygen while another patient was smoking nearby.
Mr Glynn, who was suffering from emphysema, died shortly after being moved to a bed in the hospital. He had spent three days on a trolley and chair in accident and emergency.
A spokesman for the Mater hospital said last night that it was investigating the issue but that it could not comment on individual cases.
Ms Byrne said this was another example of a patient spending their last days in less than ideal conditions in hospitals.
Meanwhile in a separate development, the Department of Health confirmed last night that it was considering leasing beds on a long-term basis from the private sector rather than going ahead with plans to develop 850 step-down beds under a public-private partnership agreement.
The PPP proposal had been put forward by former minister for health Micheál Martin.
However, a spokesman for Minister for Health Mary Harney said last night that talks on the issue with the Department of Finance now "centred on entering into a medium-term service agreement with the private sector" .
The spokesman said that the Tánaiste believed this would provide better value for money.
