A&Es endure one of worst days of overcrowding

EMERGENCY departments suffered one of the worst days of overcrowding yesterday as 562 patients waited hours for a bed.

The ongoing trolley crisis comes as the HSE launches its service plan for 2018 today, setting out how it will spend its €14bn allocation.

But despite promises in the 2017 plan to tackle A&E overcrowding, the numbers waiting for a bed yesterday were 20pc higher than they were on the same day last year.

The failure to significantly ease the hardship faced by some of the country’s sickest patients puts huge question marks over the targets in today’s plan – which will be launched by Health Minister Simon Harris and HSE chief Tony O’Brien.

There were a record 91,147 patients on trolleys or in overcrowded wards in the first 11 months of the year, marking a new record. The failure of the HSE and the minister to fulfil the pledges in the 2017 plan means that a massive 54 patients were on trolleys in Cork University Hospital in the constituency of Tánaiste Simon Coveney yesterday. There were 47 patients on trolleys in St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny and 49 waiting for a bed in University Hospital Limerick.

The 2018 health service plan contains pledges to bring down waiting lists, including buying treatments in public and private hospitals with a €50m fund.

However, some €30m was spent on buying these treatments this year and the waiting lists have reached nearly 690,000 with half a million people now in the queue for an outpatient appointment to see a consultant.