AMBULANCES were left queuing for up to four hours outside a hospital yesterday — as there were no trolleys for patients. Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth , had standing room only in A&E. Fourteen ambos were spotted waiting outside the over-stretched hospital with paramedics left staying between two to four hours with patients until a space could be found for them.
This led to an ambulance shortage in the north-east, with no vehicles available to respond to any 999 calls. One senior paramedic said: “I have never seen anything like it in all my years, this is the worst day we ever had. The hospital is just full to the brim in the Emergency Department.
” They added: “We spent four hours with one patient in a hallway on our trolley until a hospital trolley became available. “This means we can’t do our job and respond to other emergency calls. There were 14 ambulances at lunchtime.
It’s madness.” Local Labour TD Ged Nash said that at one stage last Monday there were 20 ambulances at the hospital. He demanded the current HSE recruitment embargo be lifted, revealing 71 nurses are waiting to take up roles in Our Lady of Lourdes.
Deputy Nash added: “Jobs have been offered to many of the nurses we need but the HSE has not been given the money and approval needed to hire them. “The price is being paid by the sick and the old, and the worn out nurses, doctors and healthcare assistants.” Meanwhile, more than 850 seriously ill patients had to wait at .
