NIO pledges to take steps to reduce trolley wait

NIO Minister Des Browne has pledged to take steps to reduce the long trolley waits recently experienced by patients – some of whom have had to wait upwards of 17 hours for a bed in recent days.

It has been reported that the numbers of patients who have been forced to wait on a trolley before a bed becomes available has risen to 106 in the Eastern and Northern Health Board Areas. In Antrim Area Hospital the number was highest with 24, and Belfast City Hospital and the Ulster Hospital closely followed it with 23 and 22 respectively.

The minister said that the Ulster was coordinating its response to the current situation with the health department.

Mr Browne said: "I am very aware of the recent pressures at the Ulster Hospital. A number of our hospitals are experiencing sustained pressure on services at the moment and, unfortunately, this means that people often have to wait on trolleys before a bed becomes available.

He expressed his "utmost sympathy and concern for all patients and their families," adding that all the north's hospitals were working at near full capacity at the moment. This, he said, made the service vulnerable to sudden peaks of pressure or to sudden bouts of illness in the community.

Mr Browne said: "They (hospital staff) deserve our thanks and great credit for their efforts over the past couple of weeks to contain the situation and ensure that those who need emergency care are treated as a matter of priority."

In the long term, the minister said that the answer lay in building capacity at key hospitals, and boosting primary care and rapid intervention schemes in the community to minimise pressure on hospitals.

He also advised the public who are experiencing less serious ailments to approach their GP first and not to overburden hospital facilities.

Elsewhere, Unionist health spokesperson Rev Robert Coulter has called for a probe into the use of mercury compounds in medicines administered by the National Health Service.

The North Antrim Assembly member said: “The three-in-one jab against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, which are routinely provided to eight-week-old infants, contain the mercury-based preservative thiomersal. Apparently this substance is also present in NHS approved flu vaccines.

“What worries me is that Eli Lilly, who produce thiomersal, are currently facing a £30 billion legal action in the USA. The US Institute of Medicine has warned that there is a “biologically plausible link” between thiomersal and autism.

“Clearly, if this is true, it is very serious and has to be clinically investigated immediately,” commented Rev Coulter.

“I am writing to the Minister in an effort to obtain answers to these questions. I know, as the grandparent of an autistic child, that there are many people in the community who will be watching government’s response here very closely,” said Rev Coulter.

(GMcG)