IMO signals ‘capacity crisis’ contributing to more deaths because patients being treated in overcrowded hospitals
Mr Donnelly will tell politicians that he has visited emergency departments countrywide to hear first-hand the experiences of patients and healthcare workers.
“I have seen the distress that overcrowding causes for patients, their families and frontline staff … I have listened carefully to the solutions being proposed for overcrowding in these hospitals.”Hospital waiting lists are too long in too many hospitals and too many specialties, he will say. “Waiting lists were far too long before Covid, and were made worse by Covid around the world. In Ireland, waiting lists for scheduled care increased by nearly 60 per cent between 2015 and 2021.
“In late 2021, as the worst effects of Covid began to recede, we began to tackle the waiting lists in a meaningful way. We are now in the middle of a multiannual approach to achieving the maximum wait times of 10 and 12 weeks, as agreed by all parties in 2017. As a result of these efforts, last year saw an 11 per cent reduction in patients waiting longer than these targets. That’s 56,000 people.
Last month Mr Donnelly announced a waiting list plan with funding of €363 million to remove 1.66 million patients from waiting lists. “This is projected to result in a reduction of 10 per cent to the number of people on waiting lists,” notes Mr Donnelly’s opening statement.