Winter crisis looming due to 'extremely dangerous' overcrowding
The INMO reported that 63 people were waiting for beds at CUH on Tuesday – the highest since the start of the pandemic. File picture: Dan Linehan
A winter crisis is looming in Irish hospitals unless urgent action is taken to address “out of control and extremely dangerous” overcrowding, health chiefs have been told.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) issued its blunt warning after overcrowding at Cork University Hospital (CUH) reached a pandemic peak of 63 patients on trolleys waiting for a bed.
The peak came on the same day Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced the
phased easing of public health restrictions.
INMO officers have now sought an urgent meeting with health chiefs in the South-South West Hospital group, of which CUH is part, to discuss a raft of potential solutions which they say are needed now.
“This isn’t a Covid-19 problem,” INMO industrial relations officer for CUH, Liam Conway, said. “Covid has masked the problem because patients weren’t presenting at hospitals.
“But the problems are rearing their ugly heads again – the same problems we had in 2015 and again in 2019.
“The Taoiseach is talking about preparing a winter plan for the health service but we are already in winter – we are experiencing winter levels of overcrowding now."
He said the staff who soldiered through the pandemic were burnt out.
“Our concern now is that the tools to mitigate against the risk of Covid are not being provided. Our members are very concerned about an exit of staff as borders open up again, or that people will just leave the profession altogether.”
The warning came after the INMO reported that 63 people were waiting for beds at CUH on Tuesday – the highest since the start of the pandemic.
They were among 332 people countrywide who were waiting for beds in hospitals. The number of patients on trolleys at CUH dropped to 40 on Wednesday.
But INMO trolley figures for August show there were 6,367 patients waiting for beds across the country – more than double the number in August 2020.
The highest trolley figures for last month were 823 in University Hospital Limerick, 738 in CUH and 563 in University Hospital Galway.
Mr Conway said the rate of overcrowding in CUH is now so high that staff can’t maintain the proper infection control measures needed to prevent the spread of Covid.
He called for an immediate increase in bed capacity at CUH, and in the staff required to open them, to improve the flow of patients through the hospital's system.
A spokesperson for CUH said: "This situation is being treated as a priority by hospital management who have taken steps to address this issue." But she didn't elaborate.
It is essential that all barriers to recruitment must be removed, he said.
He also called for an increase in the number of step-down and rehab beds in the community to facilitate the faster discharge of patients.
And he said the HSE must also avail of beds in private hospitals to increase the rate of patient discharge, that it must increase the out-of-hours availability of diagnostics and CT scanning facilities, and it must ensure that consultants can also assess patients out-of-hours, again to facilitate timely discharge.
Union leaders and health chiefs are due to meet early next week to discuss the looming crisis.
INMO director of industrial relations Tony Fitzpatrick said Government plans for reopening society need to include extra healthcare capacity and supports for our healthcare staff, who are burnt out and exhausted.
“Increasing pressure on our members now without proper measures to deal with the demands on the health service is going to drive nurses and midwives out of their professions and out of the country,” he said.
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