The strain on the State's Accident and Emergency services is on the increase, the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) said today.
The INO was responding to a claim by the Health Services Executive (HSE) that overcrowding fell in the last six months of 2005
INO general secretary Liam Doran said the figures used by the HSE to claim that overcrowding was down 14 per cent compared to the second half of 2004 were selective and did not reflect the experience of those working in A&E departments.
INO general secretary Liam Doran
The HSE said the average number of patients waiting for hospital admission from A&Es fell from 217 a day in April 2005 to 185 by December 22nd.
But the INO maintain that using figures from the latter part of December leads to a distortion because the time around Christmas is not a normal activity period. It said the figure for February to December 2005 shows average daily overcrowding went from 244 to 303.
"The perception of the HSE is shared by no one else who works in or experiences A&E services at this current time," Mr Doran said.
"The INO regrets that the HSE appears to be engaged in wishful thinking about the A&E crisis rather than bringing forward the capital development proposals for additional beds, which will ultimately solve this problem," he said.
The situation in A&Es in early December was so bad that the INO demanded the cancellation of elective admissions in certain hospitals and the immediate opening of all closed beds, particularly in the Dublin area, he added.
The INO has written to the HSE asking for elective admissions in January, February and March to be cancelled after its request in December was refused.
But Mr Doran welcomed the HSE's announcement that new A&E facilities at three Dublin hospitals - the Mater, St James's and St Vincent's - were either partly operational or due to open soon.
He noted the announcement had been made in the past, however, and added that additional acute and non-acute beds were also needed to alleviate A&E overcrowding.
The HSE said a new A&E unit at St Vincent's would open this month, an extension of St James's Hospital A&E department is almost complete, and a new 33-bed A&E admissions unit with 25 transit beds at the Mater, which began operation last month, will be fully operational soon.
The executive also announced plans to ease pressure on Dublin hospitals, particularly A&E departments, by spreading elective admissions over the week, rather than predominantly on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The director of the National Hospitals Office, Pat McLoughlin, has also written to regional hospitals to tell them that Dublin hospitals would only accept admissions where the treatment is not available locally.