Overcrowding in hospitals has declined further today, with 639 patients in emergency rooms or wards awaiting admission to a bed, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
The numbers are 199 patients lower than yesterday’s number, which was the second highest on record.
The INMO figures are higher and different from the HSE TrolleyGar figures in that the union also counts patients on wards awaiting admission to a bed.
The hardest hit hospitals are Cork University Hospital with 56 waiting patients, Letterkenny with 51 and Galway and Limerick with 49 waiting patients each.
HSE data puts hospital overcrowding at 469, including children’s hospitals where 13 patients are waiting.
The 8 a.m. numbers are more than 83% higher than that day last year.
HSE data shows that seven patients waited more than 24 hours at St James’s Hospital, Dublin, while 14 patients waited more than 24 hours at Tallaght Hospital, Dublin.
Letterkenny has six patients waiting more than 24 hours, Galway has 11 patients waiting more than 24 hours and Cork has 12 patients waiting more than 24 hours.
Earlier this week, INMO announced that a record 931 patients were waiting for a hospital bed across the country.
Regardless, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in hospital today stands at 657, according to the latest data.
They are 29 fewer than yesterday.
Of these, 34 are in intensive care, seven more than yesterday.
Meanwhile, an infectious disease consultant at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin said the current flu season could peak in the next three to four weeks, meaning the mask requirement may not be effective.
Paddy Mallon, a professor of microbial diseases at the UCD School of Medicine, said if a mandate were introduced it should apply in all crowded environments, as well as on public transport and in close contact with vulnerable people.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Claire Byrne today, Prof Mallon said that Covid-19 is ‘in the background’ and that the biggest impact is the flu.
“Anything that we can do to try and reduce transmission is good,” he said, reports RTE.
Professor Mallon said that by the time the mask requirement takes effect, the worst of the flu season “will probably already be passed”, reports RTE.
He said it would be best if people “put a bit more effort” to follow current public health advice.
He said there is frustration throughout the health care system, which he described as “fragile”.
No additional beds in northwest in three years
The Chief Executive of the Saolta Hospital Group, which includes six hospitals in the northwest and west, said the group had not received any extra beds in the past three years.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said that if the extra beds were put in place it would improve the current situation.
He said the implementation of Sláintecare is the direction hospitals need to go to provide more care to the community.
He also said he agreed with Minister Donnelly that hospital service managers, such as B. Consultants should organize the hospital to offer services for seven days and not just Monday to Friday in January.
He gave figures at 6:30 this morning and said the situation had eased slightly since the start of the week, but said they “still have significant numbers on trolleys” across the group’s hospitals.
“It’s a very slight improvement on the start of the week but we anticipate admission numbers will increase,” he said, reports RTE.
Canavan said hospitals in general “looking at a difficult month ahead” and will deal with it on a day-to-day basis.
The Irish Medical Organization said last night that the main problem facing the healthcare system was a “lack of physical capacity in terms of beds” and the “chronic shortage” of available consultants.
It comes after Health Secretary Stephen Donnelly said overcrowding in hospitals could get worse and that in coming weeks the HSE should urge senior medical staff such as consultants to drop by at weekends to help ease the situation.
His comments were criticized by the IMO in a statement, which said: “consultants are routinely working far in excess of ‘normal’ working hours in addition to providing on call services 24 hours a day, seven days a week and providing structured weekend shifts”, reports RTE.
“The problem is not the commitment of the medical workforce in terms of meeting patient need. we currently have over 900 vacant consultant posts and are 5000 beds below what is required for our population,” Professor Matthew Sadlier of the IMO Consultant Committee said, reports RTE.
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