Doubts at hospitals’ will to ease shortages

As trolley figures remain high, hospital consultants have questioned whether draft plans to tackle emergency department (ED) overcrowding are workable in what they call an absence of a commitment to adequate resources.

At 530, the number of patients on trolleys yesterday remained alarmingly high, if some way off the record January figure of 601.

The situation in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, was particularly acute, with 40 patients on trolleys in the ED, 10 patients on trolleys on already full wards, and 13 in the medical assessment unit, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).