Hospitals expecting ‘dreadful week’ with A&E influx to create severe bed shortages

HOSPITAL overcrowding is expected to soar this week as an influx of patients who were housebound during the bad weather turn up at A&E departments.

Outpatient clinics will resume in all hospitals except for Wexford General Hospital today. A majority of day case surgeries will also go ahead.

However, non-urgent surgeries for waiting list patients – which involve an overnight stay – remain mostly cancelled.

Hospitals face a week of severe bed shortages due to an expected surge in A&E attendances by patients who could not travel last week.

Sources said it was set to be a “dreadful week” in the health system with a combination of delayed discharges and a rise of numbers arriving with fractures as a result of falls.

As many as 700 patients who were fit to be released from hospital had to stay in over the weekend.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has called for the first two weeks of March to be declared an emergency period in the public health service.

It pointed to a delay in discharges, a backlog of patients due to the cancellation of elective procedures and the fact that some nurses will need rest periods having worked for “extended periods”.

INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “The next two weeks must be afforded emergency status. This means extraordinary measures should be put in place to focus on recovering from this adverse-weather event, ensuring prioritisation of emergency care, and this will require all non-urgent and routine cases to be cancelled during this period.”

It is expected to take at least a week for hospitals to recover from the disruption to services which left thousands of patients with cancelled appointments.

Community health services across the country will also attempt to return to normal but people in areas which are still badly hit by poor driving conditions are advised not to travel if there is a risk.

The extent to which services are reopening varies and St James’s Hospital in Dublin has had to cancel its day surgery procedures.

Outpatient clinics and planned procedures will go ahead in the three children’s hospitals in Dublin.

University Hospital Galway said there will be some curtailment of non-urgent surgeries and patients will be contacted directly to reschedule their appointments.

The HSE has asked anyone who cannot make their appointment to inform the hospital.

Cork and Kerry community healthcare services in primary care, disability, care of older people and mental health will go ahead as normal today.

Home care may continue to be affected in some of the worsthit areas for snow, and people are again reminded to check in on elderly or vulnerable members of the community.

A&E departments have seen a rise in patients suffering fractures after falls in the snow.

The HSE asked people to consider whether they really need to go to an emergency department and if there is an alternative service they can go to.

‘Extraordinary measures should be put in place to recover from this adverse-weather event’