Cork hospital bed shortage ‘very challenging’

THE number of people waiting on beds at Cork University Hospital (CUH) fell to 46 yesterday morning, according to the latest Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Trolley Watch figures, but the fallout following record figures published on Tuesday continues.

A record number of 84 people were on trolleys at the hospital on Tuesday, the highest number since the INMO began Trolley Watch in 2006.

Clinical lead and consultant in emergency medicine at CUH, Conor Deasy, said 81 admitted patients were awaiting an inpatient bed on Tuesday morning in the emergency and acute floor area, 39 of whom were over 75 years of age.

Speaking in the Dáil this week, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that new figures showed 1,100 people aged 75 and older were on a trolley for more than 24 hours while waiting for a hospital bed in January.

Answering leaders’ questions, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said emergency departments are experiencing “record attendances” and clinicians believe it is a legacy of Covid.

Ms McDonald described the fact that there were 1,100 elderly people on trolleys in one month as “1,100 scandals, one after the other”.

“Be sure that behind every one of those 1,100 is a person, somebody’s loved one,” she said.

“This crisis hasn’t fallen out of the sky — the INMO has been ringing the alarm bell for weeks and weeks.

“So the big question which arises is what is the health minister doing? What is the HSE doing?”

In response, Mr Martin said that, without question, there have been record attendances in emergency departments over the last month and that the situation is “very challenging”.

“The clinicians on the ground are saying this is clearly a legacy arising out of the Covid period in terms of people not presenting early on during Covid,” said Mr Martin.

He said there has been record investment in health and bed capacity has increased under the current Government.

However, Prof Deasy said the pandemic was entered with a bed shortage and that further beds were taken out of the community health care bed stock — over 200 in the Cork-Kerry area.

“Considering the news we heard today [Tuesday] of extreme overcrowding in the CUH — the worst in the hospital since records began — the reality is that the health service in Cork is on its knees,” he added.