HARRIS: WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH HOSPITAL BEDS
SIMON Harris has admitted the country’s health service doesn’t have enough beds to prevent overcrowding from taking place in Irish hospitals.
The Health Minister’s comments come only a week after the Irish Medical Organisation warned that the number of people left waiting on trolleys on a daily basis could reach 1,000 this winter.
The IMO added that Mr Harris’s blueprint for the future to increase beds by 2,600 would mean ‘another decade of compromised care’ for patients.
Speaking in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, yesterday where he opened a new cataract surgical centre, Mr Harris said it wasn’t just winter he is worried about.
‘Everybody asks am I worried about winter [approaching]; I’m actually worried about the capacity of the health service every day of the week,’ he said. ‘It’s no longer just a winter problem – we don’t have enough capacity in the Irish health service.’
The Minister acknowledged ‘a need for more capacity in the acute hospital setting, and more step-down facilities, and more primary care’. ‘This winter will be a challenge, as every winter is, as every day is,’ he said.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has already warned that 2018 is forecast to be the worst year ever for hospital overcrowding, with 100,000 patients expected to have been on trolleys by the end of December.
Mr Harris detailed a number of measures that will be, and are, being put in place to try to tackle the crisis. ‘More beds’, he said, was the ‘clear’ solution to the crisis. However, he acknowledged ongoing ‘challenges’ in recruiting and retaining staff.
And while the INMO agreed with the Minister’s observation yesterday that more beds would help alleviate the pressure on staff, it said more resources to deal with demand was also key.
‘Patients on trolleys used to be a seasonal problem, but it’s become a year-round crisis. Our worry is that it will get far worse once winter bites,’ general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said.
‘The Government accept that we need to increase the capacity of our health service. Extra beds need extra nurses, but the HSE simply cannot recruit enough on these wages. Without a pay rise for nurses and midwives, I worry that our health service’s capacity will fall even further behind what patients need.’
IMO president Dr Peadar Gilligan echoed the INMO’s calls for increased resources. ‘The solution to the recruitment challenge at consultant level in Irish hospitals is the immediate reversal of the 30% cut to all consultants appointed since 2012,’ Dr Gilligan said. ‘We are happy to reiterate this for the Minister but it needs to be addressed now as matter of urgency.’
Mr Harris said the Government has ‘a plan to increase hospital beds by 2,600 over the next ten years’ to help alleviate the crisis.
But Dr Gilligan said: ‘2,600 beds over ten years will mean another decade of compromised care in Irish emergency departments. The 2,600 beds are needed now and more will be required in the coming decade.’
Minister Harris announced yesterday that a 60-bed modular unit would likely be constructed on the grounds of University Hospital Limerick by this time next year, to help alleviate pressures on that hospital’s A&E as an ‘interim’ measure.
Despite a new €25million emergency department opening at UHL last year, the trolley crisis at the hospital continues unabated. Last winter, daily national trolley wait figures peaked at 677, and the IMO has warned that it could hit as high as 1,000 this winter.
‘Winter will be a challenge’ ‘Solution is to reverse cuts’