Overcrowding reaches its peak this winter with 528 on trolleys

Overcrowding in hospital emergency departments is at its highest level this winter, with 528 patients waiting for admission across the country.

Fianna Fáil says the figures show Minister for Health Simon Harris has less than a week to ensure the emerging trolley crisis doesn't escalate into a national emergency.

Health spokesman Billy Kelleher said the surge in overcrowding was a startling reminder of how close hospitals are to collapsing under the strain of increased patient numbers.

“This is the first time since March 2016 when this figure has rocketed past the alarm-bell ringing 500 threshold. New blackspots are appearing, in addition to hospitals that are known to face overcrowding crises every year.”

These include Letterkenny General Hospital which reported 45 patients on trolleys on Wednesday morning, the same as the much larger Cork University Hospital.

Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and University Hospital Galway also have over 40 patients waiting for admission.

Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, which managed to reduce trolley numbers to zero on one day last week, recorded 26 patients awaiting admission, according to the daily count by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

Mr Kelleher said the Minister announced a €50 million winter initiative some months ago “but now is the time to see progress”.

“As winter sets in, these numbers are likely to rise, rather than fall, and the Minister, and his officials, needs to have a better strategy than was previously seen in recent years.”

The long-term solution lay in investing in primary care, providing increased home care packages to help free up beds in acute settings and ensuring that the National Treatment Purchase Fund was back up and running at full capacity, he said.