Irish Association of Emergency Medicine calls for ease of pressure on hospital wards

The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine has said more home care and community services are needed to reduce the pressure in hospital wards.

It comes as the number of patients waiting on trolleys in hospitals around the country reached 601 earlier this week - a figure which is being labelled as a record high.

The IAEM added delayed discharges are contributing to the problem of bed shortages in acute hospitals.

The group noted while the reduction of the numbers of patients on trolleys in recent days is welcome, the current figure of 370 is still too high.