Some hospitals 'failing' to tackle overcrowding issue - Donnelly

The Minister for Health has said he believes some hospitals are "failing" to tackle the issue of overcrowding.

Speaking on his way into a meeting of the Cabinet, Stephen Donnelly said some hospitals are doing very well at weekend discharges and others are not.

"There is quite a wide variance," he said.

Minister Donnelly said some of the bigger hospitals are making sure there are discharges at the weekend but unfortunately there are other large model 4 hospitals "which to my mind are failing to do what needs to be done".

He said there is a need to make sure that those hospitals which are particularly challenged have the resources but are also running the service in the interest of patients.

"We have got to move away from this pattern where the number of patients on trolleys builds up over the weekend because there aren’t the discharge options in place and we see a big increase on Monday," he said.

Today's INMO figures show that 702 admitted patients were waiting for a hospital bed this morning. It said that 520 of those patients are waiting in the Emergency Department, while 182 patients are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.

This represented a fall from yesterday, when 747 admitted patients, including 32 children, were waiting for a hospital bed, according to INMO figures.

In a statement yesterday, Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said extraordinary steps must be taken to ensure that the same record breaking trolley numbers seen at the beginning of this year are not replicated.

Minister Donnelly acknowledged that capacity is also part of the solution.

He said he met with the HSE last night to ensure there is rostering over the coming weekends as he said it is a busy time in hospitals.

"We are now seeing an increase in the numbers being hospitalised with the flu so that is going to put extra pressure on."

He also said RSV cases are falling and that lots of the solutions are found through vaccinations and community care.

Extra funding approved for health

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has told the Dáil that Cabinet has approved the revised estimates vote, which will see €92 million more funding for health.

This will include funding for new drugs in 2024 as well as for Fair Deal, he said.

Mr Varadkar noted that it is in addition to the supplementary budget which was recently agreed.

He was responding to Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty who said that over 700 patients are on trolleys.