Consultant warns on hospital crisis

A senior emergency medicine consultant has warned of major problems in the coming months given the level of overcrowding which has been experienced in hospitals over the summer.

Speaking this morning John McInerney, consultant in emergency medicine at the Mater Hospital in Dublin and honorary secretary of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine, said August had seen record levels of overcrowding in hospital emergency units.

He said this was very disquieting given that in the summer months there was usually less overcrowding because of reduced hospital activity due to people being on holiday and less elective work being carried out. He said that the summer period was also associated with fewer sick, complex patients coming into hospitals.

"Hospitals that previously did not have overcrowding such as St Vincent's and some others out in the rest of the country are now seeing overcrowding on a daily basis in their emergency departments. In the past we have had overcrowding in the big teaching hospitals like the Mater or St James's. It is now reaching almost all hospitals in the State."

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said the given the level of overcrowding experienced in the summer, he would hate to think about what was going to happen to emergency departments coming into the autumn. He said immediate action was needed.

Dr McInerney said welcomed Minster for Health James Reilly’s pledge to focus on emergency medicine problems. However, he said what was needed was for the Department of Health's new special delivery unit to act, to put in management tools such as full capacity protocols and to make sure recruitment was expedited over the next few weeks to ensure the problems were tackled head on.

Dr McInerney said he agreed with the Minister that there should be a focus on the management of hospitals. He said there was now no overcrowding in the emergency department at Tallaght hospital following the intervention of the Health Information and Quality Authority over recent weeks.

The hospital, which has struggled with overcrowding for years, managed to solve the problem within a week, he said. This showed that if there was a mindset emergency overcrowding was unacceptable, then beds would be found on wards, he said.

Dr McInerney said overcrowding could be alleviated by moving patients quicker during the day and discharging patients much earlier. "That is the way you can increase capacity quickly without costing extra money,” he said.

He said his association believed if the "exit block" - delays in getting people up to beds in the six hour target - was tackled it would have a huge impact on the whole health system at very minimal cost.