Minister for Health Leo Varadker as promised to introduce 300 new hospital beds before the end of the year due to mass overcrowding in hospitals.
This announcement was made after a full meeting of the Emergency Department Taskforce Implementation Group following an increase of 40% of patients awaiting admission from emergency departments in August.
Mr. Varadker has stated extra money and staff are not enough to end overcrowding in hospitals, the work practices of consultants and nurses need to change. He means to instate seven day working weeks for doctors and allow nurses the power to discharge patients.
This year alone his department was allocated and extra €74 million in funding to deal with overcrowding.
Fianna Fáil Health Spokesman Billy Kellehar stated that: “We now find in September the minister promising to open 300 extra beds by the end of the year, bearing in mind we had 321 people lying in trolleys today.
“We have thousands of people waiting for outpatients appointments and thousands more waiting for day case and inpatient appointments, so the capacity issue is the critical issue.”