Inmo calls overcrowding a national emergency

There are 28 people on trolleys in the Midland Regional Hospital at Tullamore today and the situation, which is replicated across the country, has been branded a national emergency.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation(INMO) is calling for an immediate meeting of the Emergency Department Taskforce as the number of patients on trolleys reached 601 nationwide.

The INMO has reaffirmed its view that this is a national emergency requiring a range of special initiatives which must include:the opening of additional beds (acute and non-acute); the immediate recruitment of additional nursing staff (utilising overtime in the interim where required); and an emergency injection of resources into the community to support additional home care packages and community nursing interventions.

The INMO is also calling for the HSE, and other acute hospital employers, to immediately audit their compliance with health and safety legislation in relation to the working environment of nursing, and other frontline staff, in these overcrowded departments.

Speaking this lunchtime INMO General Secretary Liam Doran said: “We must act collectively, in the interests of these vulnerable patients and the staff trying to provide care to them, to alleviate the indignity, loss of privacy and compromising of patient care arising from this overcrowding crisis. The need for additional resources is self-evident and no party should now hinder the allocation of the required resources, to deal with this deplorable care environment, immediately”.

The INMO is also calling for the public to support our public protest, to highlight the reality for patients and staff at this time, which will take place at Dail Eireann at 12 noon on Wednesday, January 14.