New policy will see hospitals fined if patients wait for more than nine hours for Emergency Department bed

A new plan to tackle hospital overcrowding proposes a "zero tolerance" for patients waiting more than nine hours for a bed.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has welcomed the revised policy to deal with Emergency Department overcrowding.

The revised procedures are to be implemented across all HSE hospitals.

It has been agreed by the Emergency Department Task Force Implementation Group which includes the head of the HSE and the INMO General Secretary.

INMO General Secretary Liam Doran said: "The INMO, at the recent Workplace Relations Commission negotiations, continuously sought a revised escalation policy which clearly prioritised dealing with overcrowding in both Emergency Departments and in-patient wards.

"The agreed policy, issued today, if operated continuously, and consistently, has the real potential to reduce current levels of overcrowding.

"INMO members, not only working in Emergency Departments but throughout all acute hospitals, have endured intolerable pressures over an extended period.

"This is because many hospitals failed to recognise that overcrowding in Emergency Departments is a crisis for the whole service and not just that department.

"This cannot continue."

According to the INMO, the policy also provides for the hospital to be fined, if it breaches the nine hour wait time, and it is shown it did not activate the measures required, in a timely manner, under the revised escalation policy.

In addition, under the Emergency Department Ministerial Directive, a hospital will no longer be fined for exceeding waiting list targets if it is shown to be compliant with the revised escalation policy issued today.

UPDATE (10.38am): HSE director of Acute Services Liam Woods said they want to speed up the flow of patients through hospitals.

“Our key performance criterion are about time, so what we’re looking to do is minimise the time that patients spend in Emergency Departments and patients that are deemed to be for admission or require admission, spend awaiting admission,” he said.

“So it is about reducing and minimising that time.

“So what we’re looking to do in the first instance is to ensure efficient patient flow, so make sure that there are decision-makers on site where required, and there is good flow from Emergency Departments up to wards.”