27% jump in A&E trolley use: A draining litany of HSE failures

YET another chapter in the HSE’s Dysfunction Diaries was published yesterday when the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation issued the latest figures on overcrowding in hospital emergency departments. 

Some 7,781 patients were accommodated on trolleys in August. This, despite government policy and the establishment of the firefighting National Emergency Department Implementation Group, represents a 27% increase over last year.

Apart from the hardship inflicted on patients, this litany of despair has gone on for so long that it is more than wearing.