Emergency Department (ED) doctors have insisted that they do not send home patients who need to be in hospital.

The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) was responding to comments made at the AGM of the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) at the weekend.

The meeting was told that GPs nationwide have had patients sent home from EDs without treatment even though some have had life-threatening conditions. Other comments were also made about the level of care in these departments, with one GP stating that patients would be treated quicker in the Gambia than in an Irish ED.

However, these claims were refuted by the IAEM.

"We categorically refute the assertion made by Dr Conor McGee, President of the NAGP, that EDs were sending patients home when they should be in hospital. There was an inference, with nothing but anecdote to support it, that this was systemic.

"Other delegates at the meeting made equally sweeping statements about the quality of care provided in Irish EDs which are at variance with the facts," the association said.

It pointed out that the threshold for hospital admission has risen over the last decade, with many conditions that were previously treated as inpatients now being treated as outpatients. This, the association insisted, is ‘a trend that will continue'.

It noted that hospital admission is not without risks and ‘unless there is a clear benefit to a patient being admitted to hospital, then this shouldn't happen just because it might be a more convenient solution for other healthcare professionals'.

The IAEM said that the public should be assured that the decision to discharge a patient from the ED is only made after ‘careful medical assessment'.

"To suggest that patients are routinely sent home without adequate assessment is unfair and misleading to patients, their families and the public," it commented.

It acknowledged that problems can arise if a patient is, for example, sent to the ED by their GP with a clinical problem for which the ED has no solution, such as long-term back pain. In such cases, the ED may not be able to offer the patient anything.

Meanwhile, the IAEM said it fully accepts that patients should not be left waiting on trolleys when a decision has been made to admit them to hospital. It also said that it accepts that that there is a ‘severe capacity constraint' in the healthcare service, including a severe shortage of hospital and community beds.

This situation is worsened by the hundreds of patients who have completed their inpatient care, but who remain in hospital because they have nowhere to go.

"This is a matter that the HSE and the Department of Health must prioritise to improve the chances of a patient who requires acute inpatient care being actually admitted to a hospital bed in a time fashion," it noted.

The IAEM added that GPs need more resources to fulfill their role in the community. However it insisted that ‘a more considered approach by our GP colleagues to resolve these issues may ultimately prove more successful than providing media sound bites sniping at emergency medicine'.