Numbers on hospital trolleys 26% higher than a year ago

The number of patients on trolleys in hospitals yesterday was 26 per cent higher than on the same day in 2015, the Health Service Executive (HSE) has confirmed. It also said there were 20 per cent more people waiting on trolleys for longer than nine hours than there were 12 months ago.

The figures, if they were to form a trend over the coming days, would undermine the Government’s assertion that the problem of patients having to wait on trolleys had eased if assessed on an annual basis.

While confirming a spike in the numbers on trolleys yesterday compared with a year ago, the HSE said an analysis of recent performance through a 30-day moving average showed a 10 per cent improvement on the overall numbers on trolleys against the same period the previous year.

Details of the trolley numbers emerged as nurses agreed to defer a planned strike in seven hospital emergency departments on Thursday in protest at overcrowding and staffing levels.

Proposals and clarifications

The executive council of the Irish Nurses' and Midwives' Organisation (INMO) accepted a series of "confidence-building" proposals and clarifications drawn up at talks with health service management at the Workplace Relations Commission over the weekend.

In effect, the new proposals build on earlier ones, drawn up before Christmas, to deal with overcrowding and staffing levels, which nurses in emergency departments rejected in a recent ballot.

A new document says the parties acknowledge there was a very significant lack of communication, trust and confidence among emergency department nursing staff with regard to the implementation of the proposals for tackling overcrowding and understaffing.

The new document provides for the establishment of a new executive forum at hospital group level, involving senior management and INMO representatives, which will oversee the implementation of the agreement.

The HSE confirmed there were 370 people on trolleys in emergency departments and in wards awaiting admission to a bed at 8am yesterday, compared with 294 on the same day in 2015.

It said there were 183 people waiting longer than nine hours, compared with 152 waiting longer than nine hours on the same day a year ago.

Disimprovement

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said the figures "represented a disimprovement compared to this day last year" but that "there will be peaks and troughs for the next few weeks . . . The number of trolleys did fall by more than 100 by 2pm as beds became available."

He added: “We will continue with a four-pronged approach to help more people to avoid having to come into hospital, expand capacity within hospitals, change procedures and work practices, and get people out of hospital sooner.

“I also welcome the fact that trolley numbers were lower last week overall than the previous year.”

The INMO said that, based on its calculations, which can be different from the figures compiled by the HSE, there were 434 patients waiting on trolleys and in wards yesterday. This was slightly up on the 423 recorded last Friday. However, it said there were just 363 patients on trolleys on the same day in January 2015.

The HSE said that the fall in the numbers on trolleys over its 30-day average had to be seen in the context of increased numbers attending emergency departments in the first days of 2016, up 7 per cent on the same period last year.

Speaking last night after the decision to defer the planned strike, INMO general secretary Liam Doran said it was now "imperative that the HSE, at national level, and at senior level within all hospital groups, immediately commits to fully operate the revised proposals . . . This now involves meeting with our members, on a weekly basis, demonstrating that their priority is reducing overcrowding and ensuring nurses can practise safely."