Hospitals accused of false figures to drive down A&E figures

Nurses have accused hospital bosses of massaging trolley counts after claiming a leading facility is giving "false" figures to drive down the official number of people waiting for care.

The allegation came as Health Minister Leo Varadkar apologised for putting patients in danger and said his emergency department taskforce will meet next week due to the urgency of the problems — but insisted he did not “drop the ball” by going on holidays as the situation emerged.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation spokeswoman Patsy Doyle said she uncovered evidence of “false” trolley figures after making an unscheduled early morning stop at Cork University Hospital.

“I asked what the trolley figures were and the staff said the figure they were told to report was 17. The actual figure was 33, but they had been told to start moving trolleys at 7.30am to the medical assessment unit and the same-day surgical unit,” she said.

Ms Doyle said the effect of this action was to reduce the trolley count while patients remained on trolleys but uncounted in other parts of the hospital.

She said the alleged practice was hidden until now because, normally, INMO checks the figures by phone at 8.30am every day.

A HSE spokesman said that “CUH wishes to state clearly and categorically that it conforms to national standards for reporting of patients on trolleys in our emergency department”.

Ms Doyle said it was only by calling to the hospital at 7.20am yesterday instead of the usual time that she uncovered what was taking place — and said the situation is not a one-off.

The fake figures claim emerged as Mr Varadkar returned to Ireland to face criticism over his silence on the crisis. He yesterday flew back from Florida, where he was staying with family members, after the worst trolley count rates ever recorded.

In a number of interviews, he apologised for the “shameful” problems, how people were not being “treated with dignity” and that it was “definitely unsafe” for anyone to be “on a trolley or in a corridor for more than nine hours”.

Despite admitting that the issue would get worse, he declined to describe it as a national emergency, instead saying the crisis is “an acute exacerbation of a chronic issue”.

Meanwhile, the HSE has refused to name the members of its emergency department taskforce.

The only named member, Dr Tony O Connell, has resigned as chair to return to Australia — an issue Mr Varadkar learned of on Monday. Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said the lack of names called into question the progress the group — which will hold its second meeting next week due to the seriousness of the problems — is making.