'Health service is creaking' - INMO calls for elective procedures to be cancelled

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) is calling on the HSE to order the cancellation of elective procedures due to what they are calling an overcrowding "emergency". 

The INMO is recommending the implementation of restrictions including the reinstatement of face mask use in crowded and indoor settings. 

It comes as Irish hospitals are dealing with 1,308 people with Covid-19, while 570 non-Covid patients are waiting for beds today (Monday March 21). 

INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha, called today's figures "worrying and disappointing but not a surprise". 

She said, "We have been ringing the alarm on this situation for far too long. We are not in a space in which our health service can cope with 570 patients on trolleys coupled with such high numbers of patients in our hospitals with Covid. 

"The Government must now revisit their decision on mask-wearing in indoor and crowded settings. There is a clear link between reduced transmission and mask wearing. Removing the mask requirement in congregated settings particularly with poor ventilation, is clearly having a detrimental impact in our hospitals." 

Delays to tackling hospital overcrowding is costing lives.

Check out our piece in today’s @IrishSunOnline by Phil Ní Sheaghdha https://t.co/NQU2Qs1WAC

— Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (@INMO_IRL) March 20, 2022

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said hospitals are under "severe pressure". 

She said, "As of this morning, 7,093 patients have been without a bed in our hospitals since the mask requirement was dropped on February 28th. Our nurses and midwives have been dealing with overcrowding coupled with COVID transmission and are burnt out and exhausted.

"Considering in week 9 of 2022 a total of 129 Covid outbreaks were recorded, of those 116 were in health care facilities with 28 in acute hospitals. Air hygiene in hospitals is poor, Covid is an airborne pathogen and despite all the evidence the HSE has attached very little urgency, to the very real need for the introduction of hospital-wide air filtration and measurement systems.

"The HSE must now offer a direction to all hospital groups to cancel elective procedures and prioritise emergency care. We have been put in a situation where the health system is constantly playing catch up with itself because of the amount of pressure it is under, but the simple but unfortunate fact of the matter is that the health service is creaking and unable to do everything." 

She concluded: "The HSE has  duty as an employer and as a service provider to take the necessary steps to scale up capacity. The current state of our health system is extremely concerning. Patients, nurses, midwives, healthcare staff and wider hospital communities deserve better." 

Last week, the INMO called news of 544 patients on trolleys coupled with 1,042 Covid patients in hospital "a recipe for disaster". 

They stated through social media: "There must be no tolerance for hospital overcrowding while a highly transmissible airborne virus is making its way around our hospitals."