Professor Brian Lenehan:

Privacy and dignity are extremely important and we have a focus on them now following the HIQA report. Patients are seen based on the critical nature of their illness using the Manchester triage categorisation. Patients who are triaged category 1 or 2 go straight into the resus area and there is no waiting time. Patients who are triaged category 3 or 4 are deemed to be less urgent cases. Unfortunately, there are always patients presenting who are triaged category 1 or 2. That is what leads to the waits but, as I said, our patient waiting times are reducing.

The way to deal with the issues of privacy and dignity is to not have trolleys. Our ED has 40 designated single assessment bays. If we had attendances that matched our capacity and capacity in the hospital that matched our ability to admit patients and avoided having them boarded in the emergency department, that issue would not exist. It is an area we are focusing on with our nursing and healthcare assistants. We have put a patient advocacy and liaison service in the ED so there are people available to support that element of patient care needs.