A chara, – The provision of accommodation to the homeless in Dublin shows what can be done when the political will exists. The lack of a similar response for the most vulnerable in our healthcare system is appalling ("Number of patients on hospital trolleys at record high", January 6th).
It is a failure of successive governments and ministers for health that they are still trying to manage “an emergency” now ongoing for a decade. – Is mise,
Dr CATHAL NUGENT,
Loughrea, Co Galway.
Sir, – Could someone who knows about these things explain what they do better in smaller European countries that don’t have a trolley crisis? Could we adopt some of their more successful strategies rather than annually agonise over ours? – Yours, etc,
JOHN COLLINS,
Skeaghvasteen,
Co Kilkenny.
Sir, – How many more years of this new year hospital bed crisis will have to happen before it dawns on people. You cannot have your Christmas pudding and eat it. Our hospital services slow down from mid-December to early January.
People continue to become ill during this period. Not to mention the countless people stuck on waiting lists. The usual conveyor belt of clinical assessment combined with diagnostic imaging and laboratory tests slows down. Then there is the slowing down of effective physiotherapy and occupational therapy services to minimise hospital stays. The usual multidisciplinary meetings do not take place, and therefore discharges do not take place at the usual rate.
Unless we look at the Christmas holiday as a shorter period, we will always have this January problem. So, no more surprises then. – Yours, etc,
JOAN BARRY,
Glasnevin,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Perhaps the Minister for Health is in A&E himself with a score throat? I say this due to the deafening silence from the normally very vocal Leo Varadkar. – Yours, etc,
MARGARET TREANOR,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.