15-hour A&E wait for Omagh woman at risk of stroke

AN elderly Omagh woman who was rushed from the town’s Hospital and Primary Care Complex in imminent danger of suffering a stroke subsequently spent more than 15 hours waiting for treatment at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH).

Linda Fyffe, from the Dromore Road area, said she felt fit and well when she attended Omagh Hospital.

But she was left ‘shocked and frightened’ by the unexpected diagnosis and the long wait for treatment.

The 80-year-old – who has suffered a heart attack some years ago – was taken from Omagh to Enniskillen, where her agonising wait for care began. After over 12 hours in the Emergency Department, she was eventually given two tablets to lower her blood pressure. She has since compared conditions in the hospital to a ‘war zone’. “I felt fine going into the health centre that day, but what I experienced left me stressed and scared,” Mrs Fyffe told the UlsterHerald.

“The doctors at the health centre told me I was on the verge of taking a stroke and needed to go to hospital immediately. The ambulance took me to Enniskillen and I was assessed there shortly after 5pm.

“But then I was left in the accident and emergency waiting room for the next 12 hours. It was cold, I was becoming increasingly stressed, tired and hungry. I eventually asked reception if there was somewhere warmer I could go.”

“My blood pressure was extremely high, and they said I wasn’t permitted to go home until it came down. They gave me two tablets and moved me to an adjacent room at around 5am. I got about two hours of sleep before being awakened and moved to a corridor.

“The whole experience was extremely upsetting. The hospital was like a war zone. The doctors and staff were severely overworked, and the conditions were terrible. It’s not something I’d ever want to experience again.

“The fact that I was deemed to be an emergency case and then not to be seen was extremely scary.”

Mrs Fyffe’s ordeal was raised at a recent Fermanagh and Omagh District Council meeting by the its vice-chair Shirley Hawkes.

“People are reluctant to go to the Emergency Department at the moment,” she said. “Unless you are a real emergency, the general public hesitate because of the long waits. The time people are waiting never seems to diminish.

“Our constituents have a very poor perspective of the health service.”

In response, Geraldine McKay, assistant director for Surgery and Anaesthetics with the Western Trust, said delays in discharging patients were having a knock-on effect on Emergency Department (ED) admissions.

“Patients are often required to remain in hospital because there is no homecare package available to them. This results in beds being blocked, and stops new patients in ED getting to beds.

“In relation to the patient Cllr Hawkes referred to, I would like to see the timeline, because the waits in Omagh are very short and monitored daily.

“A patient going to another ED would have been triaged and referred to a speciality. They would have been receiving or awaiting treatment. The issue in this case is likely a decision to admit, followed by a wait for a bed.

“That is a reality of where we are now compared to three or four years ago when no one waited more than four or eight hours – certainly not 12. It’s a completely different system at the minute.

“One of the key solutions is increasing our capacity in the community, so patients who are medically fit for discharge can return home or enter alternative care pathways.”