<p>
	Delayed diagnosis, toilets that don&#39;t flush, showers with no curtain and call bells that are not answered when urgent assistance is needed.</p>
<p>
	These are among the many complaints about hospitals lodged by the public with the country&#39;s patient safety watchdog in recent months - making up a dossier of distress.</p>
<p>
	Conditions in overcrowded emergency departments led to a large catalogue of grievances to the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).</p>
<p>
	They included concerns about lack of privacy and dignity as patients endured hours on trolleys, the complaints obtained under Freedom of Information revealed.</p>
<p>
	The revelations come as hospitals are braced for another week of overcrowding with 417 waiting for a bed across the country yesterday morning.</p>
<p>
	The worst-hit were hospitals in Letterkenny, Limerick, Kilkenny, Portlaoise and Drogheda with overcrowding set to increase mid-week.</p>
<p>
	The behind-the-scenes plight of people that emerged in complaints to Hiqa included claims that a patient&#39;s fluid intake was not monitored.</p>
<p>
	Although fresh water was provided, they were given no glass to drink it from.</p>
<p>
	The failure of staff to wash their hands between patients and worries about cross-infection also featured in the list of allegations.</p>
<p>
	Unexplained injuries to a patient and frustration at lack of staff led to an alert to the watchdog.</p>
<p>
	Other failures highlighted included a failure to recognise a patient was deteriorating due to overcrowding and empty hand-gel containers, which are used to prevent infection.</p>
<p>
	It was also alleged there was a delay in pain relief being administered due to lack of staff, slow access to medical records and incomplete documents, medication presses left unlocked and soiled bedclothes left on a chair.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	<strong>Overcrowding</strong></p>
<p>
	Meanwhile, new figures yesterday revealed more than 37,000 operations or hospital procedures were cancelled during 2016 - up almost 13,000 compared to 2015.</p>
<p>
	Many of the cancellations were over lack of beds due to overcrowding, according to information obtained in a parliamentary reply by Fianna Fail TD Billy Kelleher.</p>
<p>
	The highest number - 5,272 - was, made at University Hospital Galway which this week has had to bring in GPs to treat some patients in its emergency department over a lack of junior doctors.</p>
<p>
	There were 2,249 procedures cancelled in Mayo General and 1,654 in Sligo General.</p>
<p>
	As demand grows for more people to be cared for at home, Minister for Older People Helen McEntee said a consultation process will be launched with the aim of setting up a statutory home-care scheme.</p>
<p>
	This would be along the lines of the Fair Deal nursing home scheme, where people have their income and medical need assessed.</p>
<p>
	They would pay a portion of the fees and the State would subsidise the rest.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	(Published by the Irish Independent on the 17th Janauary 2017)</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/dossier-of-distress-reveals-suffering-and-indignity-in-hospitals-35373044.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/dossier-of-distress-reveals-suffering-and-indignity-in-hospitals-35373044.html</a></p>
