The number of patients on trolleys in Dublin has been reduced, but overcrowding continues in hospitals outside the capital, the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) said yesterday.
The INO said in a statement that there had been a 40 per cent reduction in the daily average number of patients on trolleys waiting for an in-patient bed in Dublin for the period June to September compared to the same period in 2005.
There had been a slight increase in patients on trolleys in A&E departments outside the capital, particularly in Letterkenny, Drogheda, Cork, Limerick and Mayo.
Yesterday, Minister for Health Mary Harney acknowledged the improvements, saying that she wished to see this progress sustained and expanded as winter approached. "Fewer patients are waiting for admission and waiting times are also being reduced," she said.
The Minister said there were a small number of hospitals where problems persisted, and local solutions for each hospital would be implemented by the HSE.
They were also continuing to invest in improved capacity for patients, for example in Letterkenny, Drogheda, Cork University Hospital, the Mercy Hospital, Cork, and in Limerick and Castlebar.
The INO said that failure to increase bed capacity, either in terms of acute or non-acute beds, outside Dublin was the main reason why overcrowding continued unabated. The organisation was particularly concerned that pressures on A&E departments inevitably increased during the autumn/winter period.
INO general secretary Liam Doran said: "The reduction in the number of people in Dublin finding themselves on a trolley, waiting for an in-patient bed, over the summer period must be welcomed and represents an improvement, when compared to previous years, which must now be maintained.
"However, the lack of progress on the level of overcrowding in specific hospitals outside Dublin is most disappointing and cannot be allowed to continue."
At the next meeting of the A&E forum on November 15th the INO would seek the implementation of further initiatives ahead of the late autumn and early winter period, he said.