Hospital trolley record - An endless cycle of dysfunction

As our national day approaches it seems appropriate, if entirely disheartening too, that our national metric of dysfunction in health services — the number of people waiting on trolleys in A&E wards — has reached a record.

At one point yesterday there were, according to the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) 714 patients on trolleys, the highest number recorded. Under the HSE’s system of calculation, there were just 534 but this figure does not include patients moved from A&E to wait for a hospital bed.