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HEALTH WORKERS HAVE expressed concern about the number of patients who were on trolleys in Irish hospitals this morning.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) reported 221 patients were on trolleys across the country – the highest figure since Covid-19 restrictions were introduced in March.
The majority of those patients (183) were on trolleys in Emergency Departments with 38 on trolleys in hospital wards. Fifty patients were on trolleys in Cork University Hospital this morning.
The union has warned that overcrowding and Covid-19 make for a “toxic combination”, increasing the risk of infection, and “endangering staff and patients”.
The worst-affected hospitals include:
INMO Industrial Relations Officer for Cork University Hospital, Liam Conway, said frontline members are “rightly worried for their safety and that of their patients”.
“Infection control is necessarily compromised in a hospital with patients in corridors and on trolleys.
“The HSE assured us that there would be no tolerance of overcrowding during Covid. Yet no actions have been taken and we are sleepwalking back to mass overcrowding.”
The INMO is calling for additional home care packages, higher staffed bed capacity and an expansion of step-down facility capacity.
Labour Party leader Alan Kelly has said the figures give us a first glimpse into winter in our health service.
“Every year I call for a tailored plan to deal with the trolley crisis in winter especially for University Hospital Limerick and Cork University Hospital which traditionally see large spikes of trolley numbers, and now more than ever before we need to see a funded, targeted plan for the midwest and southwest regions,” he said.
“Our healthcare heroes have already been through so much this year.
“After all the emotional support this government gave them through speeches, applause and lit candles, the least they deserve is a plan from Minister Donnelly and the HSE to increase bed capacity to avoid what we know are traditional spikes in trolley numbers.”
Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson David Cullinane also expressed alarm at the numbers.
He said the country’s acute hospitals are facing into a ‘perfect storm’ with Covid-19 care, non-Covid services, catch-up care and the winter flu.
“Hospitals face a mighty challenge in delivering Covid and non-Covid care while respecting infection control and social distancing guidelines,” Cullinane said.
“Quite simply we need urgent additional capacity to keep up never mind catch up on missed care.”
He accused Health Minister Stephen Donnelly of ‘dithering’ and failing to produce a plan on time to address the current challenges.
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Its not sleepwalking, its Gov policy.
@Dan: well…. I mean some in Gov have literally been caught sleeping on the job recently…. so same thing no?
We’re not talking about Covid-19 here, just gross underfunding of the health system by the Government, probably the lowest per head of capita in the EU…
@Charles Coughlan: more reason to keep covid numbers as low as possible. But yes, it’s a disgrace that a wealthy country such as ours has such a dysfunctional health system.
@Charles Coughlan: up to 2016, we’d the 6th highest spend per capita in the world on healthcare. All grossly miss spent imo and throwing more money at the HSE won’t solve it either. I can find data for more recent figures but its definitely still up there.
@Charles Coughlan: if they put any more into the health system. It’s like throwing it into the fire. As it’s not going to where it should. Peter Reid says 1 billion on ppe for the hospitals for a year. And the cost of dumping it. Wake up
@Munster1: Fully agree it is dysfunctional. But not underfunded. We spend way above the OECD average. Where is all the money going????
@Charles Coughlan: not the case. It’s well funded but grossly mismanaged. The same parties at each term never do anything to deal with the systemic issues and it gets passed on each time. It needs a plan which spans the term of a single government, bought into by all parties. The unions have it destroyed.
@John Harkin: spans beyond the term^
@Charles Coughlan: the numbers for funding per capita is far from the lowest where are you getting that from – we are something like the 4th out of 27 but the money is flushed down the toilet by inefficient HSE and overload of out dated admin – we spend billions on health but the issue is reforming and modernising especially using technology _we need a lot of change but throwing millions more into a leaky bucket is not the answer
And some people want the pubs open.??
@Thomas: They don’t mean overcrowding with covid patients they mean every other illness out there as per usual our health system crumbles every year without fail because it’s not fit for purpose
@Thomas: its not as straightforward as that. none of these patients iron trolleys have covid19.
There are only 40 covid19 patients in hospital nationwide at the moment.
By January though this could be a different story.
@John Murphy: I understand that…. It’s overcrowded without the covid. So imagine if the pubs did open.
@John Murphy: So what? How is that relevant? Do we have special Covid hospitals??
@Thomas: why?? Pub/restaurants were open for two months before this latest surge which is workplace-based. The anti-drink crowd are out in force.
And yet people cheering for the last guys in charge. How you can put Leo or Simon in charge of anything is beyond me.
It’s hardly surprising, everyone who has felt poorly didn’t want to be a burden so kept putting off seeing their doctor, therefore something that could of been easily treated has escalated that now needs hospital treatment. I’m afraid telling people to stay home and protect the HSE has probably signed a lot of future death certificates. The way the health care system practically shutdown was irresponsible and far more dangerous than COVID 19 will ever be.
But the anti everything crowd said the hospitals were empty?! Our system cannot tolerate an increase in hospitalisations due to any illness nevermind covid.
@Phelim Ryan: why isnt there this level of concern every year. I know a lot who have died due to the state of Irish hospitals causing a delay of treatment and exacerbating of symptoms
@Phelim Ryan: they were empty yes until routine surgeries were retaken . We all gave the government time to prepare and that meant : hire staff and permanently increase beds and staff . The government chose not to do it despite having the money & time to do so. The people are not going to sacrifice everything again because the government is inept . There are less critical beds today than in April as routine surgeries have been retaken and no more permanent beds assured.
Today : critical beds – 437 ( staffed and ready. 356)
Vacant critical beds : 41 adult , 1 paediatric , 12 private
287 critical beds occupied , 6 with covid
April 13th 500 beds of which 415 staffed .
There’s time before winter to invest in more beds and staff, demand that instead .
Too busy lining their own pockets to actually solve problems. Don’t expect that to change anytime soon…
But yet millions of Euro being spent on pedestrianisation and building cycle lanes just to please the Greens, what the hell are we doing, call we need now is a flu epidemic this winter!
Today death is from June , A reporter has been told on RTE
I’ll people going to hospital shock. we cant sleepwalk into a situations that was only resolved by cancelling everything apart from emergencies.
But surely instead of spending tens of billions on paying Pups and testing thousands each day it would have made more sense to spend that on a few Hu dred extra emergency and ICU units???
Jesus I read the number before the article
have your say