Will October trolley figures shock Donnelly into taking action on University Hospital Limerick?
- 18,994 people languishing on trolleys in UHL to date in 2024
Labour Limerick General Election candidate Cllr Conor Sheehan said today’s trolley figures give us a first glimpse into winter in our health service this year.
Following a Labour Party motion to lift the recruitment ban in the service, Cllr Sheehan said this Government is not serious about providing safe patient care.
Cllr Sheehan said:
“Today the INMO TrolleyWatch figures show there have been 100,000 people on trolleys so far in 2024. This is before we head into the winter period when we know hospitals across the country will struggle to cope with the surge experienced this time of year.
“Time and again, the Labour Party have advocated for a bespoke plan to deal with the crisis in UHL. Instead, the situation is getting worse with poor political management of the crisis in the hospital as we see almost 19,000 people have been left on trolleys in the year to date.
“If you’re sick, you should get access to safe and timely care but over 700,000 people are on hospital waiting lists, and trolley numbers in our Emergency Departments remain too high. Staff, patients and their families are crying out for solutions.
“Yesterday, the Labour Party used its Dáil time to call for a listing of the HSE’s de-facto recruitment embargo because of the damage it is doing to patient safety, undermining care and its impact of efforts to retain staff.
“Thousands of positions across the country are deliberately being left vacant. Local clinical managers have been stripped of autonomy and can’t fill vacancies when a healthcare worker retires, changes job or takes maternity leave.
“Healthcare workers are being forced to do more with less, and safe patient care is not guaranteed.
“Ireland’s health infrastructure is struggling to meet demand, and that has to change. Every day, people are seeing the impact of this first hand.
“Additional bed capacity and extra staff are crucial to solving the now annual trolley crisis. This needs to be dealt with. The usual excuses on why we aren’t doing everything we can to stop pressure on our hospitals won’t wash with the public or with hospital staff. While this Government’s attention is clearly on playing politics with setting a date for a General Election, people who need access to safe health care are suffering.”