Almost 750 patients on trolleys, including 32 children, in 'truly shocking' figures from INMO

The INMO are calling for urgent action in increasing the use of beds in private hospitals, as well as the immediate cancellation of non-urgent operations and care. Picture: iStock

Almost 750 patients were in hospitals this morning without a bed, including 32 children, “truly shocking” new figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show as they call for non-urgent care to be cancelled. 

The sites where the most patients are waiting are University Hospital Limerick, 109, Letterkenny University Hospital, 57, and Sligo University Hospital 54.

Cork hospitals were also badly affected with 48 without a bed in Cork University Hospital and 15 at the Mercy hospital among 747 nationally. 

INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Today’s trolley figures are truly shocking and should be a wake-up call to the Health Service Executive, the Government and individual hospital groups that extraordinary steps must be taken to ensure that we are not replicating the same record-breaking trolley numbers we saw at the beginning of this year.” 

On just one day in January this year, some 931 patients were left without a bed. Since then several measures have been put in place including having more staff rostered on over weekends and bank holidays as well as boosting community services.

However, on Monday Ms Ni Sheaghdha called for urgent action in increasing the use of beds in private hospitals, as well as the immediate cancellation of non-urgent operations and care.

“We are today seeking urgent engagement with the CEO of the HSE and the Minister for Health to discuss what measures can be taken this week to protect the dignity of sick patients and the safety nurses who are trying to provide care in suboptimal conditions,” she said.

“The INMO has been warning that dangerous levels of overcrowding were imminent. There is still time to avoid intolerable levels of overcrowding ahead of Christmas and the New Year if action is taken now.” 

The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine has also recently raised concerns about the negative impact of overcrowding on patients.

They highlighted new findings showing “for every 21 older patients kept overnight in an Emergency Department awaiting a ward bed, there is 1 extra death at 30 days" from the University of Sorbonne. 

 “We see first-hand the negative impact that crowded, noisy, brightly lit Emergency Departments have on sick patients, in particular, on older adults,” the IAEM said.

“We see these patients deteriorate before our eyes; emergency medical and nursing personnel are repetitively experiencing moral injury resulting from their witnessing substandard care due to the lack of Acute Hospital bed capacity.” 

Among the HSE measures in place which had been hoped to mitigate the overcrowding is a paramedic-led programme treating older people at home instead of taking them to an emergency department.

The Pathfinder programme can allow these older people to avoid the hospital, when safe to do so.

Another much-criticised policy is seeing people who need a nursing home bed after their hospital care is finished being offered the first available, rather than waiting for their first option.