IMO: Trolley crisis faces ‘perfect storm’
A&E overcrowding figures ‘will soon exceed 1,000’
Patient group saw improvement
MORE than 1,000 patients will be left on trolleys in our hospitals this winter as a result of a ‘perfect storm’ created by understaffed and underresourced hospitals, the Irish Medical Organisation is claiming.
A lack of emergency department resources coupled with staff and bed shortages will cause major problems in hospitals in the coming months, according to the group.
‘Successive governments’ lack of investment in our health service will be seen in hospitals across the country this winter,’ IMO president Dr Peadar Gilligan warned. ‘We will be told in January that it is a “flu crisis” or a “winter crisis” – it is not. ‘It is a failure of policy. ‘Patients being cared for in dangerously overcrowded emergency departments is a function of an acute hospital system working beyond its available capacity.’ Dr Gilligan said that ‘training doctors to send them abroad’ has created a health service which cannot meet the demands of the population.
‘A sustained campaign of recruitment – backed fully by government – is needed to fill existing vacancies and improve services,’ he said. In March of this year, the highest-ever trolley figure was recorded – with 714 patients awaiting treatment without a bed in a single day.
The group is warning that the figure of 1,000 patients on trolleys will be exceeded this year – last winter waiting figures peaked at 677 in January.
On Friday, 312 patients were on trolleys according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation compared to 399 on the same day last year.
The IMO is calling for a major investment in acute beds and general practice and primary care alongside a wide-ranging recruitment campaign to alleviate this pressure.
The INMO echoed these concerns, adding that current levels of overcrowding posed a safety risk to both staff and patients.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha, general secretary with the group, said: ‘It’s not safe for patients and it’s not safe for staff. The HSE simply cannot hire enough nurses and midwives on these wages.’
However, Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients’ Association said that early indicators showing hospitals coping with demand over the weekend were welcome. ‘While we have to see the published figures, I’ve been advised that the number of patients on trolleys this bank holiday versus the previous two years is down,’ he said.
‘Considering the cold snap, the system was well prepared and this is welcome news.’
He added that he had been advised by the Health Minister that plans for the winter months were being finalised for implementation by the HSE and Department of Health. However, he said that he remained concerned about staffing levels in light of an extension of Australian visa criteria. The decision to expand the education visa to age 35 ‘might fuel our problems further’, he said.