Minister warns of further A&E pressure amid worst crowding since INMO records began
Stephen Donnelly speaking to media outside the Beaumont Hospital in Dublin last night. The Health Minister said pressure on hospitals is set to get even worse due to a surge in infections. Picture: Gráinne Ní Aodha/PA
Hospital porters roll aside five or six trolleys holding patients and their belongings to reach someone who needs to be treated or moved.
Catering staff carefully deliver hot food, trying not to spill it over the sick lying on trolleys in narrow corridors.
Paramedics wait for hours before trolleys become free to take their patients in so ambulances can move on.
These are just some of the obstacles facing staff treating patients at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) according to SIPTU industrial organiser Gerard Kennedy.
However, according to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, the situation is set to get worse before it improves, due to a "perfect storm" of Covid-19, RSV, and an early flu wave.
Speaking last night at Beaumount Hospital after all-day meetings with HSE officials, Mr Donnelly said the delays in admission were “not acceptable" and were "never acceptable.”
He said the early Flu wave along with Covid and RSV meant the extra capacity put in the system since the pandemic had been absorbed.
Mr Donnelly accepted that notwithstanding the HSE’s Winter Plan, targets for delivery of service have not been met and this is having an impact on the situation
Over 931 patients waited nationally for a bed on the worst day for overcrowding since the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation began counting in 2006, it emerged yesterday.
UHL was the worst hit with 97, with Cork University Hospital (74), Letterkenny University Hospital (61) and Galway University Hospital (52) also creaking at the seams.
SIPTU's Mr Kennedy described the problems at UHL as “predictable”, adding: “The emergency department is swamped at the moment, it is overrun". He said:
“As I understand it they are putting up to three extra trolleys in the wards, to free up space in the emergency department, which means the staff on the wards are also looking after additional patients without any additional resources.”
This level of overcrowding has implications outside hospitals, he said with ambulances "tied up" because they cannot find a trolley for patients.
“That is taking ambulances off the run for considerable periods of time," he said. "My understanding is that one day last week there were 12 ambulances backed up in the department.”
A video shared separately with the Irish Examiner shows rows of ambulances waiting outside UHL, with their doors open.
Independent councillor for Nenagh, Seamus Morris said: "The fact that UHL lost control on Monday should be the tipping point now. It was unprecedented, but totally preventable.”
He called for a meeting between hospital management, Limerick fire chiefs, TDs for the Mid-West and council chief executive officers to discuss this.
UHL cancelled elective operations again today with “significant reductions” announced.
“These measures follow an unprecedented level of ED attendance, driven by a surge in patients with respiratory infections, including Covid-19, flu and RSV,” a spokesman said.
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha warned that, nationally, “Our members are treating patients in inhumane and often unsafe conditions." She added:
Ms Ní Sheaghdha called for a return to mandatory mask-wearing in certain settings.
However Chief Medical Officer Breda Smyth last night said there were no plans to introduce mandated mask wearing.
Prof Smyth said if mask mandates were required in certain settings in future, this would be “of limited duration” and only after detailed assessment.
Sinn Féin's spokesperson on health, David Cullinane, called for capacity in the private sector to be utilised in order to ease the pressure on the health service.
Mr Cullinane has written to the chair of the Oireachtas committee on health seeking it be recalled as soon as is possible to discuss what he called a crisis in hospitals.
He said it is vital that everything possible is done to support those on the front line and to relieve pressure on public health services.
Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients Association warned overcrowding “contributes to preventable deaths and injuries in our hospitals and communities”.
The National Ambulance Service has activated its tactical management unit operating 24/7 to support staff, a spokesman said.
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