At their annual conference in Cork, the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association has said that patients are dying unnecessarily because they have to wait on trolleys in hospital emergency departments.
Studies have shown that this delay can lead to a 30% increase in mortality.
Speaking at the conference, Dr. Gerard Crotty said that many acute hospital departments are in crisis, having gone through six years of the most severe budgetary cuts in Irish history.
None of this will come as a surprise to patients, many of whom have their own experiences of shocking delays in Irish hospitals, causing stress and upset to patients and staff alike.