The crisis in hospital A&E departments is to be tackled by a dedicated task force, the Health Service Executive (HSE) announced yesterday.
The move follows an Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) estimate that the number of patients waiting on trolleys reached unprecedented levels yesterday morning at 495.
Although the HSE disputes the INO figure, it announced the setting up of the task force to tackle the problems which affect a group of 15 hospitals out of the 35 providing A&E services.
The problems have been attributed to increased cases of the winter vomiting bug and respiratory problems.
A HSE spokesman said while improvements had been achieved through the Government's A&E 10-point plan, the new team would help the hospitals identify particular issues affecting A&E departments.
"Members of the task force will go around to all hospitals where there are problems. They will take action on whatever needs to be put in place, whether it is a question of, for example, resources, capacity problems or a change in practices. The problems vary in each hospital."
The team will be headed by Angela Fitzgerald, of the HSE National Hospitals' Office, and consist of senior management and medical personnel, possibly in different specialities such as geriatrics and community medicine. They will be announced over the next few days.
Earlier, the INO said its trolley watch yesterday morning confirmed there were 495 patients on trolleys awaiting admission.
The hospitals worst affected in Dublin were St James's (39), Tallaght (39) and St Vincent's University Hospital (34). In the rest of the State they were Cavan General (38), Wexford General (35), Cork University Hospital (33) and Letterkenny hospital (30).
The INO's general secretary Liam Doran said yesterday the task force would do very little. "Every aspect of A&E was examined in 2002. They had the 10-point plan, different fora, meeting after meeting, everything was examined, but we still haven't addressed the core problem of bed capacity. What added weight will this task force bring? Very little. The only answer is additional beds and services to meet the ever-increasing demand."
The HSE said yesterday afternoon the number of patients waiting in A&E departments for admission was 337, a drop of 26 from the same time the previous day. Its spokesman said he did not know on what basis the INO calculated its figures. The HSE took the numbers every day at 2pm.
A spokesman for Minister for Health Mary Harney said many wards had been closed as a result of the winter vomiting bug. The HSE would now be working with specific hospitals where there were particular problems of waiting on trolleys.