Whole hospital system blamed for A&E problems

THERE is no evidence of an accident and emergency crisis and the number of people waiting on trolleys is due to failures throughout the hospital system, a new report has found.

The report, by British consultants Tribal Secta, which examined the patient’s journey through 10 of the State’s major hospitals, blames a variety of factors for the A&E bottlenecks including:

* Bed shortages and extremely high occupancy levels “manageable in the short term” but “not sustainable in the medium to long term”.