Ireland’s overcrowded hospitals battle ‘perfect storm’ of respiratory infections | Ireland

Ireland’s hospitals are reeling from record overcrowding amid what the government has called a “perfect storm” of respiratory infections.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said on Wednesday no hospital was unaffected by the crisis and called for an “extraordinary response” from the state.

There were 838 patients on trolleys in emergency departments or wards, the second-highest number after a record 931 patients on trolleys on Tuesday, the INMO said.

The health minister, Stephen Donnelly, is to brief the cabinet on Wednesday about a crisis he has described as a perfect storm of flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Covid-19. He said the flu wave appeared to have not yet peaked and that the crisis was likely to worsen before it got better.

Earlier this week, the Health Service Executive, which runs Ireland’s public healthcare, appealed to people seeking medical care “to consider all options” before going to hospitals.

Patients have given harrowing accounts of waiting more than 12 hours to see a nurse or doctor in crowded waiting rooms, followed by days on trolleys waiting for beds. Overcrowding was especially acute in University Hospital Limerick, Sligo university hospital and Cork university hospital.

Phil Ní Sheaghdha, the general secretary of the INMO, urged health authorities to immediately cease non-urgent activity and focus on emergency response. She also called for the return of mandatory mask-wearing in congested settings.

“It is time for the government to call this what it clearly is: an out-and-out crisis. A crisis warrants an extraordinary response from government and the HSE.”

Nurses were having to apologise to patients and their relatives for the chaos, she said. “Our members are treating patients in the most undignified conditions. This is not the type of care they should be providing in a country that has the resources to provide additional capacity and support.”

Peadar Gilligan, a consultant in emergency medicine at Dublin’s Beaumont hospital, said patients were sitting on chairs at the nurses’ station or on trolleys in the assessment area and that overcrowding could lead to preventable death.

“Anywhere that’s working above 100% capacity is not safe; and in Ireland now, it’s not as safe as it should be,” he told RTÉ. Gilligan said the acute hospital system needed 5,000 more beds.

A wave of respiratory infections has strained health care systems across Europe, with doctors in England saying problems accessing NHS urgent and emergency services could be causing up to 500 avoidable deaths a week.

The taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said it was unacceptable to leave ill patients on trolleys overnight but defended the Irish government’s record, saying over the past three years the system had gained 1,000 beds and 6,000 doctors and nurses and improved GPs’ access to diagnostics. “We’ve never had more resources than now.”

The chief medical officer, Breda Smyth, appealed to parents to keep children home from school and childcare facilities if they appeared ill. “Children should be kept at home for at least 48 hours after their symptoms have fully or substantially resolved.”