Today is World Patient Safety Day. The INMO (Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation) has once again raised the situation of over-crowding and patients waiting on trolley beds in Irish Hospitals – sadly, an issue which is raised annually and never properly addresed.
As such, the organisation is calling on the HSE to attend an Emergency Department Taskforce meeting called for tomorrow to assess new solutions to reduce overcrowding in hospitals.
The INMO claim that since the start of September, over 5,200 patients including 100 children, have been left without a proper bed in Irish hospitals.
On Friday last, the INMO’s Trolley Watch recorded 366 admitted patients awaiting a hospital bed – at least 252 patients waiting EDs, with 114 in wards throughout hospitals.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha stated: “At tomorrow’s meeting of the Emergency Department Taskforce, the HSE and individual hospital groups must bring something new to the table to ensure that patient safety is enhanced over the coming months.”
She added that hospital overcrowding along, with recruitment issues and retention, “make it impossible to provide safe care to those who need it most.” And sadly, she noted that this is the same dilemma and conversation being revisited every year.
“Senior decision-makers must prioritise the de-escalation of overcrowded areas and remove these very real barriers to providing safe care to patients in our hospitals,” she concluded.
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