Trolley figures disheartening as hospital chaos escalates

EVEN if the figures released by the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) recorded that the number of people on trolleys in hospitals last month was down 6% on the 2016 figure, the top-line figure, a record 57,674, is another expression of the dysfunction in our public life.

This is especially so as the Emergency Department (ED) task force was set up two years ago to resolve the crisis but very little has been achieved. That group has been described as wonderful at “measuring the problems... but not resolving them” by the INMO’s Liam Doran who is a member.

The trolly figures follow on the heels of new data showing that a record 687,000 people are on waiting lists for various procedures or an appointment with a consultant. They compound the sense of failure and impossibility that seems to have our health service in an unbreakable half Nelson. Mr Horan also pointed out that ED meetings are not attended by CEOs of the hospital groups and suggested that this absence condemned the process to inevitable failure.