446 patients treated on hospital trolleys

IRELAND has been plunged back into a hospital trolley crisis, after a shocking 446 people were forced to endure the unacceptable waits in a single day.

The latest Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) trolley count has shown hospitals are again struggling to cope with the overcrowding problems which wreaked havoc on patients and staff during the Christmas period.

According to the medical union, 446 people were told they would have to be treated on trolleys yesterday because no hospital beds could be found.

This figure — which is on a par with the difficulties faced over the winter period — includes a shocking 50 people alone at Cork University Hospital (CUH).

The facility, which had to treat 49 people on trolleys on Tuesday, when 451 faced the same situation nationally, has continually had some of the worst trolley counts on record despite significant investment to address the issue.

In January, when daily national trolley counts hit 500, a total of 4,411 people presented for treatment at CUH’s emergency department — the highest monthly rate ever for the facility.

The situation — which led to some people being forced to wait on trolleys for two days — came as a long-awaited multi-million euro acute medical unit meant to prevent such an occurrence was finally opened.

While the HSE did not provide its own figures for yesterday’s national trolley count, the INMO said 50 people were forced to put up with the conditions at the hospitals.

This figure accounts for just over one in every nine patients on trolleys across the country yesterday.

Among the other facilities struggling to cope with patient overcrowding were Naas General (41), Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda (37), Cavan General (32) and Tallaght (30).

The same hospitals had 49, 30, 31, 22 and 31 patients on trolleys respectively on Tuesday, indicating that a significant number of people have been waiting up to two days in the inadequate conditions.

The latest trolley count crisis emerged as the finally touches were put to an internal HSE review of why hospitals are failing to cope with emergency department patient numbers.

A month-long review by the recently appointed HSE national director for risk, quality and clinical care, Dr Philip Crowley, and signed-off on by new HSE chief executive, Cathal Magee, is due to be completed this month.

The Irish Examiner also understands that a separate HSE internal audit investigation focusing on how charitable money was spent by the Cork University Hospital foundation has been recently completed.

The money was spent, among other issues, on an outside consultancy emergency department report which has been described by CUH chief executive Tony McNamara as “invaluable”.