PROBLEMS OF overcrowding in hospital emergency departments are complex and will take time to resolve, Minister for Health James Reilly said yesterday.
His comments came as the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation maintained that record levels of overcrowding had been reached in emergency units in hospitals during August.
The union said 6,624 people found themselves on a trolley in an emergency department while waiting to be admitted to a hospital bed. It said this represented a 35 per cent increase on the same period in 2010 when there were 4,924 patients on trolleys.
It also said the August 2011 figures represented a 64 per cent rise on the number on trolleys in the same period in 2009.
The union said there were 401 people on trolleys on August 31st.
Some of the concern about the rising numbers of patients on trolleys stems from the fact that these figures were being reached in the summer rather than in the winter when emergency departments are traditionally busier.
Shortly after being appointed last March, Dr Reilly promised that never again would there be 569 people on trolleys in hospitals as there were earlier in the year. Some union leaders have forecast that without remedial action, the number of patients on trolleys would head back towards that figure in the coming winter.
The union has called on bodies such as the Health Information and Quality Authority, the Medical Council and An Bord Altranais to inspect hospitals which were experiencing record levels of overcrowding in their emergency departments to ensure that staff could provide safe care in a dignified environment to patients.
Dr Reilly said last night it was clear various hospitals had differing capacity to tackle the relevant issues.
“The solution therefore is complex too and will require an enhanced capacity by hospitals to deal with the inter-related issues involved.”
He said that he had established the “special delivery unit” run by senior adviser Martin Connor to implement new strategies to deal with waiting lists and the number of patients waiting on trolleys.
“Since his appointment in June Dr Connor has been evaluating the issues involved, has commissioned essential research and has formulated a set of responses aimed at improving the capacity of hospitals to better manage its throughput of patients,” he said.
