Unlikely trolley crisis will end soon

The trolley crisis is unlikely to be alleviated any time soon, the representative body for nurses claims.

However, declaring the crisis as a major incident at the worst-affected hospitals would “not work effectively” to address the issue, said the head of the HSE’s acute hospital division.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said 621 people were on trolleys yesterday morning, 139 fewer than the previous day.

However, that figure is still greater than at any time in January last year.

While the HSE has sought to attribute that to flu season arriving roughly four weeks early, INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said it is mostly due to sourcing extra capacity in private and voluntary medical facilities.

After HSE officials met the INMO in Dublin to discuss the crisis, Ms Ní Sheaghdha said while the HSE is very aware of how acute the problem is, “there’s a general acceptance that the problem is still as bad as it was earlier in the week and it doesn’t look like, from the information that the HSE has, that things are going to get any better”.

The crisis has led to Health Minister Simon Harris being summoned to a special sitting of the Oireachtas health committee next Wednesday.

The union had outlined a five-point plan which it said the HSE could put into action “within days”.

A key recommendation is the declaration of a major incident at the worst-affected hospitals to “de-escalate” the situation.

However, Liam Woods, the HSE’s national director of acute operations, said such protocols are intended to address “the likes of serious incidents with a storm or serious care events like a crash or whatever so they’re not going to work effectively to address this issue”.