Health Minister apologises as INMO urges Govt to declare trolley crisis 'a major incident'

Health Minister, Simon Harris, has apologised to patients and their families affected by this week's extreme overcrowding crisis in Ireland's hospitals.

For the second day in a row, 760 admitted patients were waiting for beds, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

The INMO said the number of patients without beds was more than the total bed capacity of any hospital in the State.

The worst-hit hospitals included University Hospital Limerick with 75 patients waiting, Cork University Hospital that had 47 and South Tipperary General Hospital with 44.

The INMO wrote to the minister asking for elective procedures to be cancelled in the worst affected hospitals.

Responding, Mr Harris said no politician and no trade union would decide on clinical matters. “These are decisions that need to be made by doctors,” he said.

Mr Harris apologised to patients and families affected by the extreme overcrowding. “Nobody would ever want to see anybody in this situation,” he said.

However, he did not accept that the extreme overcrowding experienced by the country's acute public hospitals could have been avoided.

General secretary of the INMO, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said the situation requires “immediate political intervention".

“760 patients on trolleys means the health service is simply not functioning. The longer this level of overcrowding continues, the greater the threats to patient safety,” said Ms Ní Sheaghdha.

We have written to the minister calling for action. We need to grasp the nettle and declare a major incident, cancel electives, and immediately approve recruitment for the worst-hit hospitals.

Rising trolley figures. Picture: Irish Examiner graphic

Responding, the minister said he did not think the analysis of the situation was fair and that nurses know that significant extra capacity, both in terms of beds and staff, is needed.

“We're doing both,” he said, pointing out that 500 more nurses are working in the Irish health services than there were in 2018.

Mr Harris has told HSE officials that any further resources they need to bring short-term relief will be provided.

He said that some of the 199 beds for hospitals to tackle the crisis opened in December. He has already pledged that all of the beds will be opened by the end of the month.

“If those beds can be staffed earlier they will be opened earlier,” he said.

Emergency medicine consultant at Cork University Hospital, Dr Conor Deasy, said the hospital needs 70 extra beds.

Dr Deasy, who was speaking on Virgin Media News, said they need an immediate commitment from the Government this week to fund the beds so they can staff them.

“Right now, in terms of what I am seeing in the ED, I haven't witnessed the likes of that when I worked in the Third World. They are Third World conditions,” he said.

Meanwhile, INMO representative, Liam Conway, said staff and patients were enduring “horrendous” conditions in the Mercy University Hospital's ED.