'People on trolleys need hospital treatment — they are not drunks waiting to sober up and go home'

A person is kept on a trolly in the accident and emergency at Cork University Hospital. File Picture: Gerard McCarthy

Hospital emergency departments are facing “a perfect storm” with funding plans failing to deliver on promises to cut the number of patients waiting on trolleys, the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine has warned.

Dr Fergal Hickey of the IAEM was responding to reports in the Irish Examiner that 27,129 people left emergency departments before completing treatment, between July and September.

“It’s a symptom of a bigger problem, and that problem is getting worse in spite of so-called ‘winter plans’ and other plans that have really not delivered anything,” said Dr Hickey.

What have they delivered? The problems are getting worse, not better.” 

In recent days, the Irish Nurses and Midwives' Organisation counted 669 patients on trolleys around the country, and yesterday that figure stood at 504.

Dr Hickey stressed that these are people who need hospital treatment. 

“If you’re drunk with really minor problems, you sober up and go home,” he said. 

"You do not end up on a trolley, and you are not in these numbers.

“We send 72%-77% of the people we see home — three in four.”

He said frontline medics are particularly worried about the impact of overcrowding in January on the vulnerable over-75s as the flu season kicks in.

An investment of €350m in February was followed by a €169m HSE winter plan, with further commitments in the budget for next year, but Dr Hickey questioned whether this funding was having an impact.

“The only way we can judge the winter plan is on whether things are getting worse, better, or staying the same,” he said. 

The reality is they are getting worse.

“So maybe things would have got even worse but for the investment.” 

He welcomed plans for recruitment, but warned that without a significant increase in the number of hospital beds, overcrowding will continue.