Nurses were given details of dangerous conditions in A&E departments at the Irish Nurses Organisation's conference (INO) yesterday.
During a heated discussion on an emergency motion condemning the failure of health employers and Government to alleviate the crisis in A&E departments, the conference heard both the personal and professional experiences of nurses.
An executive council member, Kay Garvey, spoke of needing emergency treatment at the Mater hospital for anaphylactic shock caused by a severe allergic reaction. She mistook prawn for chicken at a function in Dublin this year, and was taken to the hospital.
"I was initially told there would be a wait of 10 to 12 hours before I saw a doctor. When I told the triage staff: 'I will be dead by then,' I was immediately seen and treated."
She told The Irish Times she was moved four times during a three-hour period in the A&E department. "There were patients everywhere. I was looked after in a room down a corridor from the department. There was an appalling smell."
Describing the conditions in the unit as "MASH-like", she said she was especially upset to have to share a space with a seriously ill woman while the patient received bad news about blood tests.
The conference was also told of the case of a 22-year-old man admitted to the A&E unit of a major Dublin hospital with a suspected brain haemorrhage. Brought to A&E on a Friday night, he waited until Wednesday for a brain scan before being admitted for treatment for encephalitis, a serious infection of the brain tissue.
Another INO executive council member, Jo Tully, said: "The Government has the money (to deal with the A&E crisis); we are the fourth richest country on the planet." She said the beds were already there but were closed to patients.
Another delegate described how a 25-bed unit in Cavan hospital has never had a patient admitted since it was built.
Tracey Hayes, a nurse at Tallaght hospital, was applauded when she said: "We have had enough reports, Tánaiste, enough dithering. We want action, and we want it now."
A nurse in the day-surgery unit of a Dublin teaching hospital described how her unit had no bed for surgical procedures for four years because of the constant overflow from the A&E department. "Every morning the beds were taken by patients from A&E."
INO general secretary Liam Doran said the organisation's A&E campaign was "all about the quality of our public health service. It is not about giving the INO a profile ahead of this conference."