INMO: Hospitals should be fined for failing to deal with A&E overcrowding

Hospitals should be fined for failing to deal adequately with the recent surge in emergency department overcrowding, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has said.

INMO general secretary Liam Doran said there was no doubt that hospitals were under pressure but in the last 10 days there had been some “avoidable” overcrowding.

Hospitals can be fined €10,000 each time they fail to deal adequately with emergency department overcrowding under a framework to tackle the problem. The framework gives effect to a directive issued by Health Minister Leo Varadkar and HSE officials last November aimed at cutting trolley numbers.