July trolley numbers sign of bleak winter ahead in our hospitals

31 July 2019

Labour Party Health spokesperson, Alan Kelly TD, has said trolley numbers for the month of July have been completely unacceptable and are a sign of things to come for the bleak winter months in our health service.

This comes as the INMO have confirmed that over 9,939 people were without a bed through the month of July.

Deputy Kelly said:

“We are now near the middle of Summer, the worst of the winter viruses are behind us, but yet 9,939 people were on trolleys this month. This is completely unacceptable.

“Month on month, figures like this are released and they haven’t shocked or shamed the Government or indeed the HSE into taking any action that has any meaningful deliverables.

“The INMO have not recorded a day yet this year where there has been less than 250 people on trolleys. We should not have to accept these kind of figures as the new normal.

“Excessive trolley numbers like these are not acceptable to patients, their families or those who have to work in these conditions.

“The figures released by the INMO forecast some stark warnings for the winter that is ahead of us. The Minister for Health, Simon Harris could publish how he plans to tackle the now annual winter crisis in our hospital in the time before the Dáil comes back but we know he won’t do this because it is not politically convenient for him to do so. He has yet to publish the HSE capital plan for 2019 so at the rate he is going we would be lucky to see the Winter Initiative before Christmas.     

“We know that there are plenty of solutions to the now year round trolley crisis – more home help hours, community intervention teams, more beds. The solutions are there, they’ve been presented to the Minister for Health so many times but he continues to ignore this problem.

“Our citizens deserve better. They deserve to be treated in a safe manner.”

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