WITH more than 5,000 admitted patients waiting for a hospital bed on trolleys nationwide since the election was announced, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) says political parties must put forward solutions.
After a week of massive overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick, the INMO says there must be commitments “that will lead to a permanent reduction in the number of patients being treated on trolleys, chairs, and in other inappropriate bed spaces in Irish hospitals”.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said “the staffing and capacity crisis in our hospitals is a persistent and unrelenting issue”.
“As voters turn their minds to what the next five years will look like for our country, political parties who seek to be in government must outline what exactly they are going to do to permanently reduce the number of patients on trolleys.
“Too many people are being treated on a trolley in hospitals right across the country. The medical evidence is clear, if a patient spends more than six hours on a trolley then their long-term health outcomes are impacted,” she said.
The INMO General Secretary continued that “it could not be clearer that the State’s in-patient bed capacity must be improved in tandem with safe levels of nurses and midwives to deliver safe care and treatment”.
“Political parties must focus the delivery of additional bed capacity and put on the record if they will end the extremely limiting caps on recruitment,” she said.
