Fears
Fears busy bank holiday weekend will add to hospital overcrowding crisis
Hospitals have been asked to use private nursing home beds where possible to make beds available for emergency patients as concern grows about another busy bank holiday weekend.
For much of this week there were more than 600 patients on trolleys or chairs in hospitals around the country waiting for a bed. On Thursday, this number dipped slightly to 553 patients as emergency measures were out in place.
However there were no children’s ICU beds available, and just seven adult ICU beds available on Thursday.
Across Munster, there were just three adult ICU beds available, one in Limerick and two in Waterford.
Patients attending hospitals in Munster are particularly likely to face delays, with 101 people on trolleys on Thursday at University Hospital Limerick, 66 in Cork University Hospital, and 21 at the Mercy University Hospital.
The ED at Wexford General Hospital remains closed, with less serious injuries now being treated at an injury unit only.
Among the emergency measures put in place is a request for senior clinical decision-makers — including hospital consultants — to be available over the weekend. This was previously done in early January when the trolley numbers hit 931 patients on just one day.
“Emergency departments continue to be extremely busy and the HSE regrets that patients, particularly those who are non-urgent, are experiencing long waiting times,” a spokeswoman said.
“Hospital teams across the country, together with the HSE national team, are working hard to do all they can to reduce the length of time patients wait in emergency departments — particularly as we come in to what is traditionally a very busy weekend in our EDs.”
Hospitals have also been asked to send home patients who may be well enough to leave, or discharge them to community beds in a respite centre if appropriate.
This comes against a backdrop of continued unusually high attendance at emergency departments across the country.
Limerick hospital, for example, saw 278 people seeking treatment in one 24-hour period at the start of the week.
This is putting pressure on hospitals’ ability to offer elective care, and the HSE said this balance was continuing.
The HSE said it had increased efforts to inform the public about other suitable options.
“This is in order to protect our EDs for patients who need urgent and emergency care,” they said.
This includes injury units, out-of-hours GPs and pharmacies, with GPs also able to refer patients to medical assessment units in some hospitals with 999/112 calls still available for serious illness or injury.
Injury units treat injuries that are not life-threatening, such as broken bones, dislocations, sprains, wounds, scalds and minor burns.