Irish nurses call for urgent action as number of children without hospital bed soars

An Irish nurses group is calling on the HSE to tackle hospital overcrowding due to concern regarding the number of children on trolleys at emergency departments. 

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has called on the HSE to convene an urgent meeting of the Emergency Department Taskforce to discuss solutions ahead of the difficult winter months. 

At time of publication, five hundred and twenty six patients, including 7 children, were admitted to hospital without a bed today (September 11). 

The rising number of children under the age of sixteen on trolleys "is becoming a matter of huge concern" for members, according to the INMO. 

INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said, "Over 64 children have been on trolleys so far this month, with schools only back in earnest in the last week. Parents are sending their children to already overcrowded hospitals as a last resort as care options are not available in the community." 

Approximately 3,335 patients have been placed on trolleys, chairs or other "inappropriate bed spaces" so far in September, a situation the General Secretary called "perilous". 

She said, "It is unacceptable that we are seeing such high levels of overcrowding before the usual onslaught of winter viruses and respiratory illnesses." 

She continued: "As Co-Chair of the Emergency Department Taskforce, I am calling on the HSE to convene an urgent meeting of the Taskforce this week to discuss what measures are going to be taken on a week-by-week basis from now until the end of the year so we do not see a repeat of the trolley figures we saw earlier this year where all overcrowding records were broken. 

"The Minister for Health has indicated that he will attend the Taskforce. The HSE should not delay in getting all stakeholders around the table to come up with short, medium and long-term solutions to what is now a year-round crisis. 

"Nurses are once again finding themselves of having to apologise to patients and their families because of the state of hospital overcrowding. This is unacceptable. It is time for the health service and individual hospitals to be upfront with the public about the staffing and capacity shortfalls in our hospitals." 

University Hospital Limerick is by far the most overcrowded hospital nationwide today, with 115 patients waiting without beds. 

Fifty patients are waiting at Sligo University Hospital with 37 at University Hospital Galway. 

Just four hospitals nationwide are free from overcrowding today, including University Hospital Waterford, Beaumont, Connolly, and Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore.