Health minister’s policy is adding to trolley crisis, says surgeon

An orthopaedic surgeon whose operating lists have been cancelled for the past three months has written to every member of the Dáil warning that the health minister’s policy to end the trolley crisis is not working.

Peter O’Rourke, who is based at Letterkenny General Hospital, said the escalation policy “has made a bad situation worse, because there are as many if not more on trolleys and on top of that, operations are being cancelled”.

This was to keep hospital beds free for patients admitted through the emergency department (ED). Yet beds such as those in the orthopaedic ward were unsuitable because of risk of infection to post-operative patients.