'Closure of step-down beds exacerbating overcrowding in CUH emergency department'

Prof Conor Deasy said the reduction in step-down beds was coming 'at a time when we have never had a greater need for beds'. Picture: Dan Linehan

The head of emergency medicine at Cork University Hospital (CUH) has warned that the closure of step-down beds is exacerbating dangerous overcrowding in the emergency department.

Conor Deasy, clinical director of emergency medicine and acute care at CUH, told the Irish Examiner that “off-site regress beds” were being reduced in number in Cork, and this was having a knock-on effect in the emergency department.