Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that it is “not acceptable” that so many people are on trolleys as patients are not getting the “dignity they deserve”.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has warned that things in hospitals could get worse as the number of COVID-19 cases could increase in the coming weeks due to Christmas and New Year socialising.
The number of people on trolleys reached record highs of 931 on Tuesday. According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), this dropped to 838 on Wednesday. However, the HSE told the Government that the number had dropped to 700 by 8am.
READ MORE: Hospital overcrowding 'likely to get worse', Stephen Donnelly warns
On his way into the first Cabinet meeting of the year, the Taoiseach admitted that the numbers were “not acceptable”.
Mr Varadkar said: “A lot of patients [are] not getting the dignity they deserve.
“We are seeing an unprecedented wave of illness at the moment affecting our health system.
“Even more so that would normally be the case in early January. We have three viruses circulating COVID, influenza, and RSV. People's immunity is not as strong as it was because of the social distancing and mask wearing that we experienced during the pandemic.
“Of course, it’s not acceptable [that people are being left on trolleys]. But the Government and HSE are doing everything possible to improve the situation.”
On his way into Cabinet, Minister Donnelly once again restated that the situation in hospitals is likely to get worse and the number of people on trolleys could become higher.
He said that there had been an “encouraging reduction” in the number of people in trolleys over the last 24 hours.
However, he said that it was difficult for the HSE to predict when the peak may be reached or how high the numbers may go.
Minister Donnelly told the Irish Mirror that the number of people who test positive for COVID-19 is also likely to rise due to increased socialising over the Christmas and New Year period.
“We don’t know how much flu there is going to be, what is going to happen with COVID,” he explained.
“We know there's been a lot of socialisation, for example, around New Year and around Christmas.
“We may see there.
“One of the things that is encouraging is the number of people in ICU has remained relatively low. That's largely due to so many people taking the vaccines, the flu vaccines, the COVID vaccines.
“The HSE at this point and the Department of Health at this point, they're not able to accurately predict exactly when this is going to peak.
“But the belief is certainly from the HSE yesterday, we are likely to see continued pressure in the coming week and we may see it get worse.”
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