THE NUMBERS of patients on trolleys in hospital emergency departments dropped to just under 500 yesterday morning from a high of 569 on Wednesday as a number of hospitals confirmed reopening closed beds to alleviate overcrowding.
Naas General Hospital, where the trolley crisis was particularly severe, confirmed it opened 20 beds this week.
At Mullingar General Hospital, a further 16 beds were opened.
Cork University Hospital, where overcrowding was the worst in the State on Wednesday, confirmed it had reopened eight beds. It has also cancelled some elective surgery scheduled for today.
Galway University Hospital said elective admissions were deferred for the remainder of the week.
At Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, where the numbers on trolleys waiting for beds reached 45 on Wednesday, a number of elective surgeries have also been cancelled. The hospital has opened an extra 12 beds in a day ward to help ease the overcrowding.
Limerick Regional Hospital said 10 elective operations were cancelled yesterday and another 10 will be cancelled today. Day case lists have also been suspended. Eleven extra beds are being used in a surgical day ward.
Cavan General Hospital said planned surgical activity in the hospital has been curtailed for the remainder of this week. Some elective surgery has also been postponed at Letterkenny hospital.
Overall, the numbers of patients on trolleys fell to 492 early yesterday.
While some hospitals were able to cancel elective surgery to deal with the trolley crisis, it has emerged overcrowding was a problem in a number of hospitals which hadn’t even scheduled elective operations for this week.
Mayo General Hospital did not have any elective surgery scheduled for this week, yet it still had 18 patients on trolleys early yesterday. Similarly, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda had no elective surgery scheduled for this week as part of its winter planning initiative but had 24 patients on trolleys early yesterday.
The overall numbers of patients on trolleys waiting for beds by yesterday afternoon had dropped to 200, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said last night. It has urged the public to keep hospital emergency departments for emergencies only and says those with concerns about flu should contact their GP.
There was still no comment from Minister for Health Mary Harney on the trolley crisis yesterday. She is on holidays.
The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine said the overcrowding was putting patient safety throughout the health system at grave risk.
“It is now well-established that boarding hospital inpatients in emergency departments results in increased numbers of deaths among this group of ill patients, compared to similar patients who are admitted to a hospital ward in a timely fashion,” it said.
“Emergency department overcrowding is therefore potentially a matter of life and death for patients over and above their experience of being treated in surroundings which are inappropriate and compromise their dignity,” it added.
It also said the failure to provide adequate hospital bed capacity to deal with the health service’s acute workload “is the primary problem to be addressed and cannot and should not be blamed on seasonal flu”.
Dr Kevin Kelleher, head of health protection with the HSE, said he agreed with the emergency medicine consultants. He didn’t believe flu had made a big impact on emergency departments. This is despite claims earlier this week from the HSE that much of the pressure on emergency departments could be attributed to the increase in the number of people suffering with swine flu and other seasonal illnesses common at this time of year.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), which compiles the daily trolley figures, said a nationwide survey by it identified 1,672 closed beds. More than 400 beds of these are in elderly care facilities such as local district and community hospitals.
Liam Doran, general secretary of the INMO, said the closed beds must be reopened to ease the current crisis and to give patients back their dignity.