‘We’re in grip of national crisis’

THE Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has said the Government should declare a national health emergency.

The INMO said hospital overcrowding is now out of control as the latest figures show 1,718 patients were waiting for a bed for the first three days of this week.

It also said that this was the equivalent of three whole hospitals of patients with no beds.

On Monday there were 532 patients on trolleys. This rose to 591 on Tuesday, and by yesterday the figure was 595.

For the same three days last year, there were a total of 1,173 people awaiting a hospital bed – a drop of 545.

The most overcrowded hospitals over the three days this week were Cork University Hospital, with 159 on trolleys; University Hospital Limerick, with 135; and University Hospital Galway, with 125.

INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: ‘These figures confirm hospitals cannot cope, the system is unable to manage patient flow, and the burden is falling on nursing and medical staff, who are forced to work in intolerable conditions.

‘Staff are constantly apologising to patients for the inhumane conditions in which they are forced to care for them, and they cannot see any reprieve as we leave the winter period.’

Ms Ní Sheaghdh also said: ‘We are now in the second week of April and the figures are getting higher.

‘It is time for the Government as a whole to recognise that the health service is in crisis and requires immediate emergency intervention.

‘This is a national emergency inflicting indignity and unnecessary suffering on patients and subjecting nursing and medical and other staff to extraordinary health and safety risks.’

At least once a year since he was made Health Minister in 2016, Simon Harris has predicted waiting lists will drop. He has also announced every year that extra money will be provided to the National Treatment Purchase Fund – but despite this, the waiting lists continue to grow.