TROLLEY SCANDAL WORSENS
October hits record high with 9,000 patients left waiting in A&E misery
LAST month was the worst October on record with more than 9,000 sick and injured patients forced onto trolleys, figures show.
The crisis situation is more than twice as bad (+124%) as when Trolley Watch began in 2006.
Labour health spokesperson Alan Kelly said: “This shows how the Government’s health policy is continuing to fail our sick and vulnerable citizens.
“I have been calling on Minister [Simon] Harris to publish the HSE Winter Initiative for months now and we still haven’t seen plans for how the Government plan to boost bed capacity during the difficult winter months.
“Not only do sick patients deserve better, but hardworking frontline staff cannot endure another winter of discontent in our hospitals.”
The latest monthly report by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation showed 9,055 patients languished on trolleys across Ireland during October.
And in University Hospital Limerick alone, 1,045 did not have a bed – that’s the equivalent of double its capacity.
INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: “Figures like these do not adequately express the hardship endured by patients who find themselves in these circumstances.
“The negative health impacts of this overcrowding are known, yet this is not addressed as a national priority.
“Opening extra beds requires extra nurses, but low pay means there is no immediate prospect of recruiting additional nurses or retaining current ones.”
Wednesday’s figures revealed the hospitals with the most patients on trolleys after UHL were University Hospital Galway with 716, Cork University Hospital on 647 and Letterkenny University Hospital with 572.
These were followed by the Mater University Hospital on 519 while 512 people were left in A&E and in corridors at University Hospital Waterford.