Saturday, 25 June 2022 | 10.6°C Dublin

On Wednesday 63 people were languishing on trolleys while waiting for a bed at the Cork University Hospital.

THE Irish Midwives and Nurses Organisation (INMO) said the same urgency applied to fixing queues at airports must be applied to the chronic hospital trolley crisis.

T he body has called for the immediate convening of the HSE’s Emergency Department Taskforce in light of what it described as Wednesday’s “abnormal” trolley figures, which revealed that 546 people were waiting on a bed in hospitals across the country.

Limerick University Hospital recorded the highest individual tally at 96 followed by the Cork University Hospital at 63.

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“The fact that we have 546 patients without a bed on the 8th of June is not normal,” said INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha

“Unless action is taken we are going to continue to see high numbers of patients without a bed in our hospitals,” she added.

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said the INMO was seeking three immediate actions, the first being the immediate convening of the taskforce to put a hospital-by-hospital plan to address the problem before the winter.

The organisation is also seeking a meeting with Health and Safety Authority over what it claims is the “lack of focus and attention to the legal requirement of the HSE and Voluntary hospitals to provide a healthy and safe workplace to workers.”

Finally, it has called on the Workplace Relations’ Commission to set a date to urgently, with INMO referral, on the “breach of the Emergency Department agreement and the implication for stable industrial relations of same”.

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said members of the public were being “constantly let down” on timely access to healthcare.

“Longer term implications of these inhumane wait times are reported on but ignored. Waiting for care in inappropriate locations causes patients to have much poorer outcomes, why are we still waiting for the plan to deal with this important issue”.

“ The same all of Government approach is needed to fixing the current trolley crisis as was applied to the long queues over one weekend in Dublin Airport,” said Ms Ní Sheaghdha.

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