The latest trolley watch figures from Letterkenny University Hospital for 2016 which reveal that last year, some 2,047 patients spent time on trolleys and chairs at the hospital’s Emergency Department while awaiting admission for treatment.
The release of the figures has outraged local TD, Pearse Doherty who described 2016 as another “year of chaos.”
Deputy Doherty said the figures, which form part of the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation’s ‘Ward Watch’ campaign, clearly demonstrate that Government policy is continuing to create chaos in our health service and is putting patient lives in danger.
Deputy Doherty said “2016 was yet again another year of absolute chaos at Letterkenny University Hospital’s Emergency Department, where over the last 12 months more than 2,000 patients were forced to wait on trolleys and chairs before being admitted for treatment.
“Despite having spent every year since first having been elected to the Dáil continuously raising the problem of overcrowding at the hospital with successive governments, the situation at Letterkenny is today one of absolute chaos for patients, and for hospital staff.
“This time a year ago we witnessed the overcrowding figure at Letterkenny hospital break the 2,000 mark for 2015, and again we see a repeat of these record breaking numbers one year on over the course of the last 12 months.
“Across the state, we see a similar situation playing out in our other acute public hospitals, where patients, including our older people, have been left for days on hospital trollies because hospitals cannot cope with the demands being placed on them.”
He added the chaos, which we are now seeing year after year, is a direct result of policy decisions by this Government to prioritise tax breaks and incentives while public services are run into the ground. Healthcare is becoming a luxury for the better off in society and that is simply unacceptable.
“The blame for the hospital overcrowding crisis lies squarely at the feet of Government. Promising to open beds but not hire the staff to provide for them is not a solution. Blaming hospital managers for not doing more with less resources is a pathetic abdication of responsibility.
“Our Health system is grinding to a halt, so much so that patients’ lives are being put in danger, and yet the response from Government has been to blame everything but their own ill-advised and reckless policy decisions.”