The figure is 71% higher than this day last year - worst impacted hospitals include Cork University Hospital and St Vincent’s hospital
Cork University Hospital has 23 patients waiting on beds on Saturday. Photograph: Andy Gibson/ The Irish TimesA total of 260 people were waiting for beds in acute hospitals, including children’s hospitals, throughout the State as of 8am on Saturday, new figures from the Health Service Executive show.
GPs have expressed concern about the capacity to handle the demand from patients seeking appointments because of a marked increase in respiratory illnesses in the community. “I feel worried about sending people in to hospital. That is no indictment of our colleagues and nurses in hospital. You are sending somebody in to hospital because you can’t look after them but they know that the care they are going to get is not as good as it should be,” he said.
“That was the appropriate thing to do at that time. Now it is not. That is not a blame issue it is just that patients have been reconditioned. It is a good idea to recondition them back. And say if you have a viral illness it doesn’t matter if it is Strep or Covid – if you feel under the weather just stay at home.”
Meanwhile, there is growing concern about the ever escalating beds crisis in Irish hospitals. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is consulting its members on whether to strike over unsafe staffing levels.
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