HSE boss pledges overcrowding action

The head of the HSE has pledged to visit the 19 hospitals most plagued by emergency department (ED) overcrowding in an effort to bring the trolley numbers under control.

Speaking on RTÉ radio, HSE director general Tony O’Brien said he would be visiting the “19 most challenged hospitals” to see what could be done locally to prevent a repeat of the kind of chaotic overcrowding that occurred during winter last year.

Mr O’Brien, who announced this week that he was taking over from Liam Woods, his national director of acute hospitals, as joint chair of an emergency department taskforce, said he had the experience and the authority “to create the kind of conditions” to “get a better outcome than we might otherwise get”.