Independent TD Mattie McGrath has described the latest statistics on the number of patients waiting on hospital trolleys as a national scandal for which no one is being held to account. Deputy McGrath was speaking after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), confirmed there has been an enormous 173% increase in the number of patients on trolleys for this July compared with the same point in July 2006. The statistics also reveal that the number of patients waiting on trolleys at South Tipp General this July was 509 – a 54% increase from the same point last year:
“The facts could not be clearer; we have a Minister for Health and a health service executive who are driving the hospital system over a cliff through reckless mismanagement.
How else are we describe the fact that approximately 9,500 patients were left waiting on hospital trolleys during the month of July?
Where on earth is the more than €17 billion we are pumping into the system going?
It is absolutely extraordinary to think that South Tipperary General, despite the heroic efforts of the staff has been unable to de-escalate from the HSE’s Full Capacity Protocol since January 2016.
Previous to this point, I was informed by the Hospital Manager that in the years prior to 2015 STGH had an escalation plan that did not include the Full Capacity Protocol but rather a tiered response to the activity within the Emergency Department.
But what this shows is that neither the previous policy or the newly developed Full Capacity Protocol has come anywhere near addressing the crisis situations.
We seem to be simply changing the titles of the Emergency Department Directives with absolutely zero change in outcomes for patients.
What is also distressing is the fact that the proposed Modular Unit will at best be a sticking plaster solution when full surgery is required,” concluded Deputy McGrath.
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