Health service moving from Covid crisis to overcrowding crisis
Cork University Hospital had 47 patients on trolleys on Monday. File picture: Larry Cummins
The Irish health service is swinging straight from a Covid crisis into an overcrowding crisis, with the number of people left waiting on trolleys now at its highest level since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has issued a strong warning that services could become overwhelmed if overcrowding continues to worsen and is coupled with increasing Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations.
In the latest Trolley Watch figures, the INMO identified a total of 381 admitted patients without beds on Monday morning in Ireland’s hospitals.
This was the highest figure since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
The worst-hit hospitals included Cork University Hospital (CUH), with 47, University Hospital Limerick, with 41, and University Hospital Galway, with 39.
Both Sligo University Hospital and Mayo University Hospital each had 26.
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said services simply cannot cope with overcrowding during the pandemic.
“Our health service is rapidly swinging from a Covid crisis back into an overcrowding crisis," she said.
“The HSE said at the start of the pandemic that overcrowding would not be tolerated, but it has been on the rise consistently in recent months.
She said badly-hit hospitals need to scale back on the services they offer, and extra staff need to be taken on.
CUH has blamed the recent HSE cyberattack as one of the reasons it has the worst overcrowding stats in the country but also says many people are waiting on trolleys due to a "large number of very ill patients".
But it insists the closure of the acute medical assessment unit at Bantry General Hospital (BGH) just over two weeks ago has had “minimal impact” on overcrowding.
This is despite concerns among GPs, nurses, ambulance crews, and health unions that issues at BGH have had an impact.
Amid mounting pressure, BGH's acute medical assessment unit is to now reopen on Wednesday in a boost for healthcare in the region.
"Almost every crisis at this hospital has, over the years, been filled with false promises," he said.
In Limerick, efforts to accelerate hospital discharges are ongoing in order to free up beds.
A spokesperson for the UL Hospitals Group said the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick “remains exceptionally busy”.
They said: “Sustained high volumes of attendances, including many frail elderly patients with complex medical conditions, have continued over the weekend.
“The number of Covid-positive patients in UHL has increased to 21 over recent days and the requirement to stream non-Covid from Covid/Query Covid patients requires continuing vigilance."
Health officials confirmed a further 1,522 cases of Covid-19 in the country on Monday, which followed more than 3,600 new cases over the weekend.
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has shot up by more than 300% over the past month from 50 in early July to 217 on Monday
RCSI senior lecturer Eoghan de Barra said this was going to have a knock on effect on non-Covid care.
"This is an additional number of patients that wouldn't normally be in hospital at this time of year," said Dr de Barra.
"A 200-300 burden of patients that are more complex and have to be isolated from the rest of the hospital means space, capacity diverted away from business as usual.
"We know a lot of business as usual has been paused or postponed for many months."
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