INMO warns of 'catastrophic winter' due to record hospital overcrowding

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has warned of a "catastrophic winter" for hospitals after it recorded 10,515 patients on trolleys in the month of September.

This is the second worst September for overcrowding in Irish hospitals when 10,641 patients were without a bed in 2019, according to the INMO.

The top 5 most overcrowded hospitals in September 2022 include:

University Hospital Limerick (1382 patients)
Cork University Hospital (1260 patients)
University Hospital Galway (1032 patients)
Sligo University Hospital (790 patients)
Letterkenny University Hospital (666 patients)
 

INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “It is clear from this month’s overcrowding figures that we are on a path to a catastrophic winter in our hospitals. It is unsafe for nurses and the patients they care for. Besides a leaked draft winter plan, we have no clear vision from healthcare leaders as to what the solution for this winter is.

“The ongoing problems with overcrowding are leaving nurses completely and utterly demoralised. We have a severe recruitment and retention problem within the health service. This week alone in a large teaching hospital in Dublin, over a dozen nurses working in a busy Emergency Department handed in their notice.

“Our members are now voting with their feet and saying that they will not stand for another winter where they are demoralised, burnt out and abused in their workplace because of the excessive workloads.

“Despite promises from senior hospital management that things have improved, University Hospital Limerick is once again the most overcrowded hospital in the country. The INMO visited the hospital this week and saw first hand the conditions our members are working in. There is no dignity for patients who end up in UHL. Their care is no doubt being compromised because of the conditions.

“It is not enough for the Minister for Health and senior HSE leadership to acknowledge that we are in for an undesirable winter. We need to know when the private hospitals will be coming on the pitch, we need to know what exact measures are being implemented to keep our nurses in the system, when extra capacity will be coming through in communities to allow discharging of patients to happen in a timely manner. Patients need assurances that they will be cared for in a safe environment that ensures their care is not compromised,” Ms Ní Sheaghdha said. 

A statement from the Health Service Executive (HSE) in recent weeks confirmed that 2022 saw an "increase in ED attendances with a significant increase in the number of patients aged 75 and over attending EDs with complex care needs and often requiring admission to hospital for further treatment".

HSE Interim Chief Clinical Officer Damien McCallion said last month that overall hospital attendances have increased by 5pc since 2019. 

"We are seeing more people who are accessing care, perhaps who were restricted over recent years. We know general practice (GPs) in particular are very busy in recent times,” he said. 

"In our hospitals, they still have pathways for Covid and non-Covid patients and that impacts on the flow in hospitals number one, but there are also a number of other ways that, that impacts hospitals as well in terms of our utilisation of single rooms for infection, for people with Covid.”

"None of our hospitals want any elderly person, particularly at the most important part, potentially in their life in terms of when they’re ill, to have to wait for those sort of periods. From our perspective, that’s one of the key areas that we’re focusing on now in terms of trying to improve,” he said.

"We know that age is one of the factors in terms of impacting on health and that’s an area that all of our hospitals and our community systems will be focusing on as we move into what could well be a very difficult period of winter," Mr McCallion said.