Not a single hospital has been fined for failure to implement a policy that is supposed to reduce overcrowding in emergency departments — at a time when numbers on trolleys are at record levels.

Not a single hospital has been fined for failure to implement a policy that is supposed to reduce overcrowding in emergency departments — at a time when numbers on trolleys are at record levels.

Health Minister James Reilly has said an initiative to cut waiting lists for health procedures will be unveiled next month.

An €18m intervention fund has been set up as the latest initiative in tackling the politically sensitive and enduring issues of emergency department overcrowding and excessive patient waiting times.

The Department of Health has established an international “oversight group” to ensure the recommendations of the damning Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) investigation into Tallaght Hospital are implemented.

Ireland’s emergency department overcrowding crisis could be significantly reduced if James Reilly, the health minister, ensured rules to make wards take extra patients in times of excessive trolley numbers were enforced.

LAST year was the worst in almost a decade for the number of patients waiting on trolleys.

NURSES say their concerns have been clearly addressed in a Department of Health report on conditions in Limerick’s Mid-Western Regional Hospital.

CONFUSION surrounded the future role of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) after the Health Minister said he had asked it to “cease making further commitments” while at the same time reassuring patients that they can continue to apply for procedures under the scheme.

MORE than 5,000 people joined the queue of public patients waiting in excess of three months for surgery since the end of 2010.