SOME 401 PEOPLE are waiting for beds in hospitals around the country, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
As of this morning, there were 41 people on trolleys in Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, 37 in Beaumont Hospital, 37 in University Hospital Limerick and 31 in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
A full list of the number of people on trolleys today is available here.
On Tuesday, the number of people in emergency departments waiting for beds exceeded 600 for the first time ever.
Yesterday, Fianna Fáil leader criticised Leo Varadkar for his handling of the situation, saying the Health Minister needed to take action and “stop being a commentator and some sort of detached analyst”.
Varadkar’s predecessor James Reilly defended him, saying he has “a very difficult job to do”.
On Monday it emerged that Dr Tony O’Connell is to resign as HSE National Director for Acute Hospitals and Chairman of the Emergency Department Taskforce at the end of the month in order to move to Australia, where his wife is taking up a top academic post.
Vardakar said he has been in contact with O’Connell every day bar Christmas Day in recent weeks.
He said the measures advised by the Taskforce such as curtailing elective surgery and making more homecare packages available, clearly didn’t work or weren’t fully implemented over the busy Christmas period.
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