MINISTER HARRIS MUST DO MORE TO SOLVE TROLLEY CRISIS
Labour spokesperson on Health, Alan Kelly, has called on the Minister to do more to tackle the over-crowding crisis in our A&E departments, following warnings from the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine that up to 350 people could die this year if the crisis isn’t tackled.
“As we know from the figures released from the INMO yesterday, 601 people on trolleys show that Minister Harris’ plans aren’t coming anywhere close to solving the trolley crisis.
“In response this morning Minister Harris said that he has started a recruitment campaign to get more nurses in our hospitals and negotiations are underway for a new GP contract, sadly this isn’t a fast enough solution for the rising number of people on trolleys.
“Every morning on the airwaves we are hearing horror stories about elderly people being forced to wait on trolleys for hours on end, at risk of catching a bug or virus, while already overworked hospital staff scramble to carry out the basic duties such as measuring their blood pressure or taking their bloods.
“Every possible resource needs to be examined. Nursing Homes Ireland for example says over 700 beds are available in nursing homes across the country.
“The Minister needs to take serious heed to the dire warnings by the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine, we can’t have a situation where people are dying because of the trolley crisis.”