HSE ‘bending the rules’ in bid to tackle overcrowding crisis

The head of the HSE has admitted to bending the law in an effort to make a dent in the emergency department overcrowding that resulted in an all-time high of more than 600 patients on trolleys this week.

HSE director general Tony O’Brien told Newstalk they had “torn up the rule book”, even cutting across “certain aspects of minor laws” in an effort to speed up the discharge of patients in need of nursing home care.

The continuing presence in hospitals of more than 700 patients whose acute care is finished but who have not been discharged into more appropriate step-down care settings is being blamed by the HSE as the principal reason behind the emergency department crisis.