More than 1,000 over-75s waited 24 hours for a hospital bed in January
More than 1,000 older people waited for more than a day for a hospital bed in January, new figures show.
Numbers from the HSE show that in January alone, some 1,093 people aged over-75 waited at least 24 hours for admission to a hospital bed, with 173 of those in Cork University Hospital (CUH), the worst affected hospital.
In addition to Cork, St Vincent's (119) and UH Limerick (109) are above 100 cases, while the pressure is also acute in the Mercy University Hospital, which saw 76 over-75s waiting for a bed for longer than 24 hours.
At University Hospital Kerry, there were 42 cases, and seven at University Hospital Waterford.
In Dublin, in addition to St Vincent's 119, Tallaght had 91, the Mater had 87, Mullingar had 39, Wexford 21 and St James's and Connolly had 5 and 3, respectively.
The figures were released to Sinn Féin's health spokesperson David Cullinane by HSE on foot of a parliamentary question he put to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
Mr Cullinane said that the situation was "unacceptable" and said that he did accept that the situation had been brought about by Covid-19.
"It's hard to be shocked when you hear numbers from the health service like 900,000 on waiting lists," the Waterford TD said.
"But nearly 1,100 older people in EDs waiting on beds for more than a day is extraordinary. We don't have the beds in the hospitals, we don't have discharge beds and we don't have community facilities.
"So failures across the system are leading to people waiting on chairs and trolleys for over 24 hours and that's not acceptable. I don't accept for a second that it's all Covid related. People in hospitals are telling me that it's because we don't have GP capacity, out-of-hours capacity or step-down beds needed."
The Department of Health did not respond to a query on the matter.
The HSE said that the issue was due to a number of factors including the impact of winter and the high numbers in hospital and attending emergency departments, which are leading to "very high" demand on both hospital and community services. It said the situation has improved and that over half of patients over 75 were discharged or admitted within nine hours in the week ending February 6.
"Our hospitals are seeing record attendance levels, with over 27,900 attending Emergency Departments this last week alone, and almost 7,000 people admitted to hospital (an increase of 23.8% on the same week last year). We have seen an average of 333 people on trolleys each day last week, a 203% increase on the same week last year. A high proportion of those admitted are over the age of 75. This has resulted in longer stays in hospital for people who have complex care needs and oftentimes require considerable community supports on discharge."
Last week the HSE's Anne O'Connor said that older people are sicker when coming to hospitals.
Sean Moynihan, the CEO of older person's charity Alone said that the numbers were "not surprising", but said that there may be even more older people who are not presenting to hospitals due to Covid-19 fears or fears that they may end up in nursing homes if they do.
"This is a long-standing problem and we're not surprised in a lot of ways.
"Post-pandemic there's a lot of older people who need health, housing or community supports. One of the main reasons that older people can't access EDs, is delayed discharges."
The figures came as the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) warned of a "dangerous" situation at CUH, with 84 people on trolleys - the highest figure the union has recorded at CUH since it began tracking the figures in 2006. Medical sources said the issue is "the worst they've ever seen".
A CUH statement said that the hospital was " exceptionally busy today and over the last number of days".
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