Number of patients waiting over 24 hours for A&E care doubles
OVER 25,000 people waited more than 24 hours in emergency departments in the first five months of this year, new figures reveal.
The figures are more than double those in the same period last year, when 8,865 patients waited for more than 24 hours.
Over 8,000 of the patients waiting for treatment were over 75 years old, up from 2,500 last year.
Cork University Hospital saw the most patients wait more than 24 hours with 1,173 patients waiting that long during the five-month period.
University Hospital Limerick and St Vincent’s Hospital both had over 900 patients wait in emergency departments for more than 24 hours. Many patients did not wait for treatment and 7.9% left the emergency department before being treated during June this year, the figures from Health Service Executive (HSE) show.
Tallaght University Hospital saw 830 people leave before receiving treatment in the month-long period, 18.8% of all the people who went to the emergency department.
The figures were released to Sinn Féin deputy David Cullinane after he asked the Department of Health how many people were waiting for treatment.
The TD said that the waiting times were putting real pressure on acute services and driving up waiting lists.
‘The crisis in our emergency departments is going from bad to worse.
‘The number of patients waiting more than 24 hours month-on-month is increasing and is unacceptable.
‘We need to increase inpatient bed capacity but crucially we need to increase the number of recovery beds in the community to speed up discharges.’
Mr Cullinane said too many patients who could be treated elsewhere or even stay at home were being forced to go to emergency departments.
‘Far too many patients who should be cared for in the home or in the community have no choice but to present to emergency departments.
‘We have a deficit in GP capacity, out-of-hours GP services are patchy and ineffective, and millions of home help hours and intensive home care packages cannot be delivered due to staff shortages.’
Stephen McMahon, of the Irish Patients’ Association, said frontline staff should not be blamed for the long waiting times.
‘The HSE shouldn’t allow the frontline staff to bear the brunt of the crisis at HSE emergency departments.
‘It’s not the fault of people on the frontline: the generals behind the lines are the ones that are accountable for ensuring that the patient flow is there.
‘We’ve been saying this for years. It’s all about patient flow,’ he said.
Mr McMahon said the long waiting times could not be blamed on Covid or the HSE cyberattack in May last year.
On Monday, the Irish Daily Mail reported that nurses have warned of chaos in hospitals this winter unless drastic action is taken by the Government, with more than 9,000 patients without a hospital bed last month.
The number on trolleys and in wards in July was a 52% increase on the figure in July 2021. Coupled with Covid pressures, the spike so early in the summer is a ‘cause for serious concern’, its representative group has said.
More than 9,191 patients went without a hospital bed in July, including 95 children under the age of 16.
The level of overcrowding for July is the second highest since records began in 2006.
‘It’s not the fault of the frontline’