HSE experts to be sent to tackle hospital overcrowding in Cork and Galway

A Hiqa report found Cork University Hospital is heavily reliant on agency nursing staff to ensure safe and sustainable staffing levels. Picture: Dan Linehan

The same team of HSE experts sent to University Hospital Limerick in a bid to tackle chronic overcrowding will be deployed to Cork University Hospital (CUH) and University Hospital Galway, the health minister has said.

The announcement came on the same day that the health watchdog published a damning report into overcrowding at CUH’s emergency department. The report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) followed an unannounced inspection in June and found that the hospital is heavily reliant on agency nursing staff to ensure safe and sustainable staffing levels.

CUH was the most overcrowded hospital in the country today, with 60 patients on trolleys, while 23 patients were waiting for a bed in University Hospital Galway.

Speaking in Limerick today, Stephen Donnelly said the same HSE national support team sent to Limerick last April, which implemented measures “that appear to be working”, will now be deployed to Cork and Galway.

There were 23 patients waiting for a bed in University Hospital Galway on Thursday. 

“I have now said to the HSE that I want the same team to go into Galway and into Cork," said Mr Donnelly.

We know that Cork and Galway are under significant pressures, so what I want to make sure is that the managers and clinicians there have access to the same ideas and [measures] that so far appear to be working in Limerick.

The health minister said both hospitals could benefit from the same restructuring of patient flow seen at UHL, which has produced “very positive” results, has seen “trolleys taken off wards and the [reduction] of average length of stays” for patients.

There were 58 patients on trolleys in UHL today, but this marked a significant improvement on April, when 126 patients were waiting on a bed.

A number of “hospital-avoidance measures” aimed at keeping patients out of the emergency department and/or treating them at home, particularly for elderly patients, are now coming on stream.

An Older Person Assessment Centre (OPAC), located near the ED will open from Monday, where “the idea is to assess people to ‘discharge’ and assess to ‘admit’”, said Limerick Hospital Group’s chief executive, Professor Colette Cowan.

“They might need occupational therapy, physiotherapy in the home, rather than staying in here in our ED or on a trolley,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Hiqa inspection at CUH raised concerns that the hospital is facing continued challenges in managing surge capacity, supporting effective patient flow, and the timely review and medical assessment of patients.

INMO assistant director of industrial relations for the southern region, Colm Porter said the findings at CUH are “particularly stark".

“On the day that Hiqa carried out its inspection, 62 people were without a bed. Since then, over 4,469 patients have been on trolleys in Cork University Hospital," he said.

The hospital is the most overcrowded hospital in Ireland today. The bed deficit that currently exists in both CUH and the wider Cork community is adding to the pressure in this emergency department.

Mr Porter said the report raises questions on the safety of staffing levels in CUH and that a bespoke taskforce is needed.

A spokesperson for Cork University Hospital said: “We welcome the recognition by Hiqa of the progress that has been made since the previous inspection. That said, we also recognise and agree fully with the report’s observation that the situation in ED remains very difficult and significantly challenging.”