Hospitals report easing of beds crisis over holiday weekend

ACCIDENT and emergency departments at some of the country’s biggest hospitals reported an easing off in the beds crisis over the bank holiday weekend.

In a welcome respite from the overcrowding which left dozens of patients on trolleys for prolonged periods earlier in the week, hospitals described conditions over the weekend as “manageable”.

Newly formed hospital lobby group, Patients Together, is not, however, backing off from plans to generate a nationwide campaign for radical improvements in A&E services.

Minister for Health Mary Harney has agreed to meet with the group and a date will be arranged in coming days. Last night a spokesman for the minister said Ms Harney hoped to meet the group “fairly soon”.

In the meantime, the group is putting together a plan of action which will include a number of public protests, the next to take place in Dublin later this week.

One of the reasons for the quieter conditions in hospitals over the past few days is thought to be the reduction in scheduled surgeries, few are ever scheduled for a bank holiday weekend.

This had the effect of freeing up beds in wards for admissions from A&E. Hospitals also traditionally try to discharge recovering patients in advance of a long weekend rather than make them wait until the following Tuesday to get home.

A spokesman for Beaumount Hospital in Dublin said last night things had gone “quite smoothly” over the three-day period. “There has been no undue pressure on A&E. We have nine patients waiting on trolleys, which is manageable,” he said.

James Connolly Memorial Hospital and St Vincent’s, also in Dublin, reported a similar calming of the situation. “The emergency departments were busy and there were patients on trolleys but there was no major difficulty and no serious delays,” a spokesman said.

In Cork, the Jazz Festival brought thousands on to the streets but, to the relief of medical staff who were dealing with Friday’s fatal five-car accident near Fermoy, there was no discernible knock-on effect on the number of patient arrivals.

A spokeswoman for Cork University Hospital said: “Monday was the busiest day and we had eight people on trolleys then, so things were manageable.”

Family doctors, meanwhile, have warned they can not take up the slack if hospitals respond to the overcrowding problems by releasing elderly patients into nursing homes without adequate medical support.