‘I dread to think how much worse things will get’ - Cllr highlights patients’ ED wait woes

A SHOCKING nine hour delay for a child waiting on head stitches and the plight of a Navan woman whose appendix burst while waiting on a chair in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda have been highlighted, as tensions mount over proposals to have ambulances bypass Our Lady's Hospital, Navan.

Cllr Tommy Reilly has outlined the plight of his grand-daughter, who suffered a severe cut to her head, which was only treated the next day.

"My granddaughter hit her head while doing gymnastics and needed to go to hospital.

"She is almost 16 so they brought her to Navan, but they wouldn't look at her because she was under 16.

"She went to Temple Street where they met a lovely nurse who said it needed stitches, but a doctor would have to see her first. She was then told it could be nine or ten hours before she would see a doctor.

"She was advised to go home and to back the following morning to Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown. She did that and she was looked after well there."

"It is a disgrace that she had to wait so long to be treated. This is happening all the time. It is a shame that so many services are gone from the hospital in Navan and the recent proposals will make it even worse," he said.

Cllr Reilly said he knew of a woman who went to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda several weeks ago with suspected appendicitis.

"She had to sit on a chair in the hospital, in pain, for 10 hours before she was seen and her appendix burst in that time. She could have died and she was very ill," he said.

"I dread to think how much worse things will get, when they close the ED in Navan," he said.