HOSPITALS WILL CONTINUE to roster people over the coming weekend to “ease pressure” on the urgent and emergency care system over St Patrick’s weekend.

The HSE’s chief operations officer Damien McCallion told RTÉ’s News At One that “St Patrick’s weekend historically brings additional pressure”.

In addition to hospitals continuing to roster people, McCallion said: “We continue to use the private bed capacity, both in terms of acute beds and in terms of nursing homes or other private providers.”

He told RTÉ that “St Patrick’s weekend is always a busy weekend” and reminded people of the “importance of GP out of hours service or urgent care centres”.

However, McCallion added: “Clearly if someone has an emergency, they should go to an emergency department or call 999 for an ambulance.”

The HSE’s chief operations officer also noted that “we are continuing to see year-on-year increased attendances to emergency departments”.

He said there is a “tension” in hospitals when it comes to “waiting list challenges” between emergency care pressures and people who are brought in for scheduled care and procedures.

“What we’re focusing on this week is trying to continue with bringing patients in so that we can address our waiting list challenge,” said McCallion, “and striking that balance as we continue to see pressure on the emergency departments in terms of attendance.”

He added that there is a “focus” on areas “where patients can go home to a step down bed or a facility that might help them on the way to home”.

University Hospital Limerick

The latest trolley watch figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) shows that there are 651 patients without beds in Irish hospitals today.

INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “It is clear that hospital overcrowding is out of control once again.

“The INMO has been in contact with the new Chief Executive Officer of the Health Service Executive seeking an urgent meeting in the next 24 hours ahead of what will be an extremely busy bank holiday weekend for our members.

“It is clear that the system is now completely overwhelmed. We need targeted measures to tackle this crisis, particularly in the Midwest where the overcrowding is completely out of hand.”

116 patients in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) were among the 651 nationwide without beds, the worst affected hospital nationally.

Speaking on RTÉ, McCallion said UHL is “taking a number of steps in the hospital and indeed in the community locally”.

“They have managed to reduce the number of patients who are waiting for discharge,” said the HSE’s chief operations officer.

“They’re also focusing on what can be done both today and tomorrow going into the weekend and in terms of measures for escalation over the weekend.”

McCallion added: “When the pressure increases at EDs, we look at options in relation to using other beds, like surgical beds or day case beds, and some of those patients in Limerick will actually be in beds in our medical assessments units, surgical assessments units, and so on.”

When asked if targeted measures are needed in UHL, McCallion said: “It is a system response, our GPS will play an important role and they’re invaluable in terms of ensuring that people who don’t need to go to ED, don’t.

“They also have urgent care centres in Limerick, in terms of Ennis and Nenagh. So we are using all of the facilities that are available, and the team in the Midwest are focused on trying to reduce those numbers of people waiting.

“The improvement team centrally are continuing to work with them in terms of trying to share some of that best practice that we’re taking from other hospitals and applying that in Limerick and that’s an ongoing process.”

McCallion added that is isn’t about a “single intervention” but rather “a constant working together to try and improve the way in which the service works there”.