LAST UPDATE | 19 Dec 2023

THE HSE HAS contradicted claims by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) that 2023 has been the worst year for overcrowding in hospitals in almost two decades.

The health service has said that it will begin sharing data on the HSE website “giving a clear understanding of the factors which make up the hospital position”.

“The trolley numbers have been far too high, though suggestions that this year has seen the highest number on record are not correct,” the HSE said in a statement.

The union claimed that with just six days to go to Christmas, there has been “no let-up” in pressure for members working in “overcrowded and understaffed” hospitals across the country.

Over 121,526 patients have gone without a bed in Irish hospitals in 2023 according to the INMO’s figures which, if correct, make it the worst year for hospital overcrowding since it began compiling the figures in 2006.

In its Trolley Watch count for this year, University Hospital Limerick (UHL) was the most overcrowded as 21,141 patients were left waiting on a trolley.

The other remaining top five were:

• Cork University Hospital (12,487 patients)
• University Hospital Galway (8,914 patients)
• Sligo University Hospital (8,094 patients)
• St Vincent’s University Hospital (6,555 patients).

The new database will each day show the figures of people waiting on trolleys in emergency departments and in wards respectively. The HSE said that in both cases the numbers are currently “unacceptable”. 

The database will also show the number of people placed in surge capacity while they await a bed, which is “a more appropriate form of care above that of waiting in ED or on a ward”. 

“While our numbers may still differ from day to day, HSE staff and management are in complete agreement that they are far too high.”

Meanwhile, a new Covid variant, JN.1, of interest has been flagged, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the risk it poses to public health is currently low.

“Due to its rapidly increasing spread, WHO is classifying the variant JN.1 as a separate variant of interest (VOI) from the parent lineage BA.2.86.

It is anticipated that this variant may cause an increase in SARS-CoV-2 cases amid surge of infections of other viral and bacterial infections, especially in countries entering the winter season. Therefore, the spread of this variant will unlikely increase the burden on national public health systems compared to other Omicron sublineages. 

Waiting on trolleys

UHL being the INMO’s most overcrowded hospital comes on foot of yesterday’s announcement by the HSE that a fresh investigation is to be take place into the death 16-year-old Aoife Johnston at the midwest hospital last January.

Aoife died of bacterial meningitis, after a 12-hour wait in the hospital’s emergency department, on 19 December last year, which was overcrowded at the time.

In its statement this morning, the INMO counted 517 patients are on trolleys in Irish hospitals today.

General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that it was the “second year in a row” that Trolley Watch had surpassed its record figures.

“With six days to Christmas, there has been no let-up in pressure for our nurses and midwives who are working in overcrowded and understaffed hospitals,” Ní Sheaghdha said.

“The year is not even over and 121,526 patients have been admitted to hospital without a bed. Over 3,450 children have been on trolleys so far this year, an increase of 24% on the previous year. This is not something to celebrate and was entirely predictable.

“Instead of coming forward with plans to drastically improve the lot of our members and patients who find themselves in emergency departments, the HSE have instead decided to implement a recruitment freeze which will further demoralise a burned out, exhausted workforce.”

She added that has become “impossible” staff to “provide safe care” due to a combination of lengthy delays in processing patients, inadequate bed space and unsafe staffing levels.

“What will it take for the HSE and Government to act? The independent agency HIQA last week stated that in over 80% of the hospitals they have inspected, patient dignity was compromised and that workforce planning must be prioritised,” the INMO boss added.

“We are about to walk into an unbearably busy time in our public hospital system and it is clear that lessons from the not-so-distant past have not been learned when it comes to tackling the root causes of hospital overcrowding.”

Sinn Féin spokesperson on health, David Cullinane, said that the INMO’s figures were a damning indictment of government failure.

The Waterford TD said that the government has failed to deliver enough hospital capacity over the last three years, and added that funding decisions in the Budget had left hospitals without the beds they need while constrained by a recruitment embargo.

“Workers and patients will face severely overcrowded hospitals, which will have no choice but to cancel planned appointments and surgeries to cope with surging winter demand. This is simply shifting the problem from one part of the health service to another,” Cullinane said.

“This situation was avoidable. The Minister announced 1,200 new beds three years ago, and 200 of them have yet to be delivered. He has recently announced 1,500 new beds on a number of occasions, but secured no funding for them in the budget just gone.”

Cullinane claimed it amounted to the government having “thrown in the towel” on health care.

“The Government knows that these beds are needed, and needed urgently,” he said.

Additional reporting by Mairead Maguire