Suggestions that Portakabins could be erected at Dublin's Mater Hospital within a week to enhance the space for patients attending its overcrowded accident and emergency department were dismissed yesterday by a senior official with the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Pat McLoughlin, head of the new HSE National Hospitals Office, said one couldn't put in place temporary buildings without planning permission and the approval of fire officers.
Businessman Ben Dunne had donated €30,000 towards the cost of three Portakabins after callers to the RTÉ Liveline programme recounted stories of patients spending days on trolleys in the hospital's cramped A&E department. Several other businesses also pledged to provide furniture and fittings.
While the Mater hospital welcomed the offer of Portakabins, it confirmed yesterday it could not accept them. It said space at the hospital was limited.
The space outside its A&E unit on Dublin's North Circular Road is especially limited, while its large car park at Eccles Street has been earmarked for a €340 million development, including a new A&E unit. Work on the site is expected to begin next year.
The hospital, in a statement, said it had submitted plans for an extra 25-bed patient waiting facility as part of its A&E unit to the HSE in December and it was awaiting approval. It believed this was the best way forward.
However, it would discuss with those who had pledged goods and services for the Portakabins the possibility of them helping equip the new 25-bed unit when it was approved.
"The hospital cannot however accept the kind offer of Portakabins for the treatment of A&E patients," the statement said. "This is principally due to patient safety issues driven by the need to integrate additional A&E capacity with all necessary hospital services [ such as resuscitation, X-ray, laboratory, theatres, intensive care and cardiac catheterisation laboratory].
"Space at the Mater is limited but carefully managed, the best solution is the plan submitted to the HSE."
However, Janette Byrne of Patients Together said the reference to the Portakabins being refused "principally due to patient safety issues" was farcical. "There is no way they could make A&E any more unsafe than it is at the moment. It would be a terrible waste for the hospital to say no to them."
Dr Aidan Gleeson, secretary of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine, said it was "an appalling indictment" of how bad the service was that it should have to rely on charitable donations. "It's not the public's responsibility to sort it out."
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the Mater's A&E unit was very old. "It hasn't changed much since the time I worked in the Mater 30 years ago. That's why we are building a new hospital there."