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.

St Stephen’s Day has lived up to its reputation as a busy one for hospitals, with figures from emergency departments around the country showing a spike in presentations the day after Christmas.

Hospitals are paying agencies €100 an hour for locums to plug the gaps in emergency departments (EDs) when the shortfall could be substantially addressed by creating a new grade of staff doctor.