More than 70,100 people either did not wait to be seen, or left before completing their treatment, in Ireland’s emergency departments (EDs) during the first seven months of this year, new figures show.
The problem was most pronounced at the Mater and St James’s hospitals in Dublin. The figures also show that 31,821 patients waited more than 24 hours to be admitted or discharged from an emergency department between January and July. Over the same period, the average waiting time in emergency departments was 9.3 hours.
The data was obtained from the HSE through a parliamentary question submitted by Social Democrats TD Pádraig Rice, who chairs the Oireachtas Committee on Health.
Performance varied widely between regions. The Dublin South East region did best, with more than 67% of patients admitted or discharged within six hours. In Dublin North East and in the South West, just over 49% of patients were admitted or discharged within that time.
Deputy Rice said emergency departments were in “a permanent state of crisis.” He said hospitals operate every day under constant pressure from overcrowding, and are short of both staff and beds. “The fact that 70,000 people left an ED without being seen in the first seven months of this year alone should be setting off alarm bells in the Department of Health,” he said.
In response, the HSE said that up to last week, there had been an increase of more than 90,000 emergency department attendances this year compared with last year, a rise of 7.3%. It said this included almost 17,000 more attendances, up 8.9%, from patients aged 75 and over who were seeking urgent healthcare. The HSE said it is committed to improving patient flow through emergency departments.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Rice said the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found that 300 more beds are needed each year to keep up with Ireland’s ageing and growing population. Last year, however, only 196 new beds were added. He said new beds also need staff, but that there is “essentially an embargo of hiring staff within the health service and huge staff shortages and huge pressures.”
He also pointed to a lack of care outside hospitals. “We have a huge shortage of GPs, particularly in rural areas, commuter areas, and people end up going to emergency departments because they can’t get access to a GP service,” he said. He called for care to be moved away from the most expensive end of the system. “Too much of our care is at the most expensive end in acute hospitals, and that needs to be a shift to primary care and that’s where the resources need to go,” he said.
The figures come as hospitals around the country report mounting pressure. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) says 684 admitted patients are currently waiting for beds nationwide, including 437 in emergency departments and 247 on wards. University Hospital Limerick has been the most overcrowded hospital in recent counts, with Cork University Hospital and Sligo University Hospital also among the busiest. University Hospital Galway had 67 people on trolleys earlier this week, and asked people to attend its emergency department only in a genuine emergency.
Mayo University Hospital apologised on Monday for lengthy delays moving patients from its emergency department to ward beds, and said it has deferred some elective surgeries to prioritise urgent and time-sensitive procedures.
