388 admitted patients are waiting for beds this morning, according to today’s INMO Trolley Watch. 298 patients are waiting in the emergency departments of hospitals across the country while 90 are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.
TUH in Clonmel reports 13 patients being cared for on trolleys. University Hospital Limerick continues to suffer from chronic overcrowding with a total of 53 admitted patients waiting on beds.
The government is to expand the operating hours of the Medical Assessment Units in the Mid West to a 24 hour service 7 days a week.
The Local Injury Units in Nenagh, St John’s Limerick and Ennis Hospital will also be extended to a 24/7 service model.
The changes are to be implemented following a motion put forward by Independent TDs Marian Harkin(Sligo Leitrim) and Michael McNamara (Clare) which was accepted by Minister Mary Butler.
The intention is to reduce the volume of attendances at UHL and to provide patients with a better experience. No precise timeline for the expanded service is available as of now.
The motion also calls for the appointment of a designated Medical Officer in every nursing home to ensure that patients in nursing homes can access treatment by primary care teams.
The final part of the motion calls on the Department of Health to put an electronic health system in place to replace paper based records without delay.
Some patients attending UHL and availing of Out of Hours GP service have raised the issue that access to their medical records is not always available due to the paper based system in place at present.
