Extra beds and staff ‘to end hospital crisis’
SIMON Harris yesterday vowed to end the hospital overcrowding crisis – by promising additional beds and pledging to put more staff on out-of-hours shifts.
The Health Minister told an Emergency Department Task Force meeting that private hospitals will also be used to alleviate pressures on acute A&Es.
The meeting came as the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation recorded 555 patients on trolleys yesterday, down from last Wednesday’s record high of 677.
Mr Harris said it was unacceptable that patients remained in difficult conditions across our emergency departments. But he said the benefits of ‘exceptional measures’ undertaken last week were beginning to be make an impact.
After the meeting, Mr Harris said: ‘The measures agreed... include an increase in the number of senior clinical decision-makers on hand in hospitals in the evenings and at weekends, enhanced access to diagnostics, increased access to transitional care beds, [and] the opening of additional beds in a number of hospitals including St James’s, the Mater and Beaumont.’
The long-awaited bed capacity review will be brought to Government soon, the minister said. Mr Harris said he was committed to increasing bed capacity. The review will determine how many beds the health service requires to meet demand over the next ten years.
Representatives from the HSE, trade unions and patient advocacy groups were at the meeting to hear Mr Harris’s plans to deal with a winter crisis that has caused havoc in the health service.
Irish Patients’ Association founder Stephen McMahon said the meeting was ‘productive’, and that Mr Harris was receptive to concerns raised by those in attendance.
But Mr McMahon said there were fears that the HSE did not have adequate staffing levels to man any additional beds.
‘One thing that was raised was the impact of staff shortages on being able to open beds. The challenge is
‘Without nurses beds cannot open’
that you can have all of the investment in the beds but unless you get the staff to run them, you suffer day to day,’ he said.
After the meeting, INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: ‘There is a realisation by all that acute beds are needed to correct the capacity problem and that without additional nurses, such beds cannot be put into use.
‘Current efforts to recruit and retain nurses are failing and it is clear that real investment and incentives are needed to attract and retain sufficient numbers of nurses if utilisation of the additional beds is to be realised.’
She continued: ‘It is now necessary, that prior to the end of January 2018, a meeting to agree the funded workforce plan for nursing and midwifery for 2018, takes place.
‘This is extremely important and must include matters such as ensuring the maximum of Irish graduates remaining in Ireland post-qualification this September.’
The INMO said HSE officials who attended the meeting confirmed that all acute hospitals have been advised to make every acute bed available, particularly isolation beds and intensive care beds if needed.
It said: ‘The task force confirmed that strict adherence to the agreed escalation policy, all patient flow measures, including cancellation of elective surgery/procedures, and utilisation of beds in private hospitals are required.’
Cork University Hospital medical clinical director Mike O’Connor told RTÉ that 11 patients were transferred to the Mater Private to alleviate overcrowding.
Sinn Féin health spokesman Louise O’Reilly was critical of what she said was privatisation of public healthcare. ‘This is a poor reflection on the Government and in particular Simon Harris,’ she said.
‘This Fine Gael-led Government allowed the crisis in our health sector to reach unprecedented levels and now it seems even more funding will be diverted into the private sector, away from the public sector.
‘Mr Harris needs to provide us with full details of how much this is costing and what services in the public health service will be cut back to pay for this. It is vital that patients are seen and treated but this should be happening in the public service.’
The most overcrowded A&E yesterday was University Hospital Limerick, according to the INMO, which recorded 55 patients on trolleys there. The HSE said 63 patients had waited on trolleys for more than 24 hours yesterday.