Healthcare professionals warn of ‘unimaginable’ winter in Irish hospitals

Thousands of new beds and hundreds of new staff to fill vacant positions are the “minimum” needed to handle the coming winter in Irish hospitals, health professionals warned.

It occurs when hundreds of patients wait for beds and the number of Covid-19 patients requiring hospitalization increases.

A € 600 million plan, expected to be launched by the HSE this week, should support a “zero tolerance” approach to overcrowding in hospital emergency departments, warned the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organization (INMO ).

The typical winter cart crisis simply cannot be tolerated in the Covid-19 environment, he said.

INMO’s Trolley Watch reported that more than 230 patients in trolleys were waiting for hospital beds on Monday, a number that has been rising in recent weeks and ahead of the typical flu season that last year caused a record increase in the number of carts.

At the same time, up to 90 Covid-19 patients are now in hospitals, up from 49 two weeks ago, and last week several hospitals had to cancel procedures due to pressure on their departments.

INMO Secretary General Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that without a “proper” winter plan, the strain on patients and staff will be “unimaginable”.

“Covid and overcrowding simply cannot mix,” said Ms Ní Sheaghdha.

We need to ensure that the winter surge in hospitals does not turn into a surge of Covid as well.

“Social distancing is not possible with carts along the aisles.

The Irish Association of Hospital Consultants said an additional 2,000 inpatient beds are needed, at a minimum, to tackle major challenges this winter.

The association also called for ICU beds to be doubled, 300 additional psychiatric beds, 1,300 auxiliary beds, waiting times to be reduced to a maximum of 18 weeks and 500 vacant consultant positions to be filled urgently.