€26m winter plan to tackle overcrowding at A&Es

There is €26m for a winter plan to deal with emergency department overcrowding in acute public hospitals, Simon Harris, the health minister, has confirmed. Mr Harris attended a meeting of the Emergency Department Taskforce this week where the focus was on the country’s busiest acute hospitals.

Over the past six weeks, six hospitals accounted for 49% of the morning trolley count — University Hospital Galway, University Hospital Limerick, University Hospital Waterford, Cork University Hospital, Mater Hospital, Dublin, and Letterkenny University Hospital, Co Donegal.