28 people are waiting on a bed at St Luke’s hospital this morning.
Latest figures from the Irish Nurses & Midwives Organization (INMO) shows 489 on trolleys across the country today – 21 of them at the local emergency department with seven on other wards there.
It comes after a weekend where many hospital staff worked beyond their contracted hours, to discharge 400 patients on Saturday alone.
There are delays in discharging some patients due to gaps in follow-on care available, despite 1,000 nursing home beds lying empty today.
Chief Clinical Officer with the HSE Dr Colm Henry explains why hospitals can be slow to transfer patients to community care; “They don’t all have the same needs and they don’t all live in the same place but our teams do right across the country working with HSE and with nursing homes identify as early as possible beds that meet the needs of people who are waiting discharge from hospitals but there are other needs people have that means their discharge may be delayed including complex rehabilitation needs, including special needs at home”.
Meanwhile, there’s a shortage of 212 medicines in the country—read about that here.