Sascha Wil­son

Up to yes­ter­day, pa­tients were still be­ing kept in the asth­ma room at the Ac­ci­dent and Emer­gency De­part­ment of the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal be­cause there were no avail­able beds on the wards. Some pa­tients had to wait in the asth­ma room for at least three days be­fore they got a bed. A nurse who did not want to be named said: "This is noth­ing new...This hap­pen­ing all the time and it will con­tin­ue to hap­pen be­cause there is not enough beds in the hos­pi­tal."

The asth­ma room was packed yes­ter­day with sev­er­al pa­tients seat­ed on chairs. But the more se­ri­ous cas­es, par­tic­u­lar­ly those be­ing treat­ed in­tra­venous­ly and in need of oxy­gen, were ly­ing on beds. There were at least four beds in the asth­ma room. The nurse said, "Some pa­tients were ward­ed yes­ter­day (Tues­day), but new pa­tients are com­ing in all the time."

Chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of the South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (SWRHA) Michael Har­ris said on Tues­day that they had a fixed num­ber of beds. When those beds are in use, he said, new pa­tients would have to wait un­til some­one was dis­charged be­fore they could get a bed. He said, how­ev­er, that SWRHA's pol­i­cy was that pa­tients in need of ur­gent at­ten­tion would be trans­ferred to a pri­vate nurs­ing home.