Solutions are long overdue for hospital overcrowding crisis

THE hospital overcrowding crisis returns to the news agenda this week with the depressing regularity of an overdue bill notice.

The ever-worsening situation is so endemic that it no longer generates the shock headlines it once did. As we are warned this week by Irish Association for Emergency Medicine president Conor Deasy, the reality is that this continuing failure is costing human lives, with more than 20 preventable deaths ascribed to the trolley crisis.

If terrorists were to walk into a hospital or hospitals to kill the same number of people, there would be worldwide coverage, and an immediate change of tack in Government policy to ensure such a situation never occurred again.

The fact that these deaths are happening amid the mundanity of bureaucratic policy failures does not make the scandal any less disgraceful.

Waiting lists lengthen at this time of year because of the need to cancel much needed elective surgeries.

This hurts not just the vast number of people who await treatment, but also those awaiting appointments to establish exactly what treatment they need in the first place.

There are very few families in the State who are not impacted directly, or who don’t know a family that is.

The harsh reality, for many years now, is that Ireland is no place to be sick, and only those blessed with the fortune of not having to visit hospital are in any way inured against the mismanagement and poor governance decisions.

The most recent case is that of 16-year-old Aoife Johnston, whose family are searching for answers as to why she was allowed to die while getting progressively sicker from sepsis while attending A&E.

Her story, unfortunately, is just one of many, some not yet reported, because citizens of the State will be forced to take expensive legal action against the HSE to vindicate their rights or the rights of their loved ones.

We appreciate that Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is trying his best to limit the misery in hospitals and emergency rooms, but the time for trying is over. Solutions must be found so that, this time next year, you won’t read these words again.

A HIGH POINT FOR IRISH MOVIE TALENT

WE are living in a golden age of Irish film.

We’ve never had such a pool of Oscar and Bafta-nominated talent, including Cillian Murphy, Saoirse Ronan, Kerry Condon, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Brendan Gleeson, Andrew Scott, and Barry Keoghan.

At this time of year, in awards season, we are used to cheering for the plucky underdog, an Irish film that against all odds has attracted some recognition.

However, this year, Irish film is revelling in two of the best prospects for the Oscars in March – Poor Things and Oppenheimer.

Cillian Murphy is the bookies’ favourite to win the Leading Actor award for playing the nuclear scientist in Oppenheimer, although that may turn into a ding-dong battle with Paul Giamatti, star of The Holdovers. And Poor Things, produced by Dublin-based Element Pictures, has received 11 nominations, a record for an Irish film.

Today, Element’s founder Ed Guiney and Screen Ireland chief executive Désirée Finnegan tell this newspaper that they largely agree the current generation of stars is perhaps the best crop to emerge in Irish cinema history. This point was driven home when Kneecap, a biopic of a little-known Irish rap band, won the Audience Award at the US Sundance Film Festival this week. Hopefully, it is the first award of many to be enjoyed by Irish cinephiles this year.