Patients waiting on trolleys in corridors of General Hospital

Andy From Sligo

twice recently I have been sent by my Local GP to the ED Department of Sligo University Hospital. Once in March 2023 and then Friday last.

It involved getting a chest x-ray. Both times I have been accosted by a doctor/nurse from the ED waiting room to the X-Ray department. Both times being led down a corridor full of patients waiting on trolleys the poor poor people (presumably waiting for a bed on a ward?)

Its such a sad sad situation - there is no dignity , no dignity at all walking past (which the other day was mainly elderly people on the trolleys) coughing/sleeping, or groaning in pain and looking very ill, some dressed and some half dressed in PJ's with a blanket over them.

could the hospital not be better managed than this? - I understand about that every hospital has patients waiting on trolleys in the hospitals all around the country its become a way of life it seems. No beds available on the wards or short staffed. But really is it good/ideal that the patients from the ED have to be led down a corridor of sick patients on trolleys to get to the x-ray department like this - apart from the dignity aspect that people do not need every tom dick and harry members of the public walking past them on trolleys I am sure I heard a doctor with one of the patients by their bed/trolley in the corridor say something like "it is an infection..." and there is me thinking "what if I pick up something" - let alone what if I have something and I pass it onto them walking past them in the corridor. It cannot be good for cross contamination.

I dont know how simplistic this might sound , I am not an health expert or know how hospitals are managed but instead of these trolleys lined along the corridors on the way to the x-ray department (or other departments there) and i know it does not sound ideal having any people waiting on trollies in any corridor and it shouldn't be happening at all but would it not be more ideal for the trolleys/patients on trolleys be wheeled up (even if there is not a bed available on the ward(s) ) for them to the corridors of the wards like on the other levels of the hospital where the wards are? so that when a bed does come available on the ward then they are at least just outside that ward ready to go in and have a bit more privacy and dignity up there just outside the wards because there is less chance of the general public walking past them on the ground floor? - it makes sense to me, to move them up there and then they (even if they are not actually on the ward) that they are just outside it in a corridor there instead, but am I missing something?