Over 629 patients, including 24 children are being treated on trolleys, chairs and in other inappropriate bed spaces in Irish hospitals today.
We are seeing yet another pre-Christmas surge in the number of people who are being admitted to hospitals without a bed. Dangerous levels of overcrowding are not just confined to a couple of sites, we are seeing high levels of patients on trolleys in most hospitals. This is an indicator of the difficult weeks that lay ahead for patients and nurses and midwives who want to provide safe care in our hospitals.
Each year we face the same problems in our hospitals with no long-term solutions offered to ending the ongoing, year-round overcrowding crisis in our hospitals. As government formation talks continue ensuring that our hospitals are safe from a staffing and capacity perspective must be a priority for all engaged in negotiations.
The overcrowding crisis is being exacerbated by the serious issues in staffing across all hospitals and community services. Patient safety is directly linked to staffing levels, curbing recruitment and placing restrictions on the authority of Directors of Nursing and Midwifery to recruit is exacerbating the ability to provide safe and timely care.
Measures can be taken now including the curtailing of non-urgent elective care, ensuring that all senior clinical decision-makers are on site, and introducing heightened infection control measures will create a release valve to ease the pressure in the majority of sites.
As our members are continuing to work in very trying circumstances, they want to be assured by all involved in government formation negotiations that improving their conditions at work will be a top priority.