The Minister for Health has been described as the ‘King of Spin’ by a local hospital campaigner.
Conor Reidy from the Midwest Hospital Campaign and Nenagh Needs Its A&E group was responding to the Ministers plans to tackle the overcrowding crisis at UHL.
These include extending the opening hours of Acute Medical Assessment Units at Nenagh, Ennis and St John’s which will open on a 24/7 basis.
Minister Donnelly also expects to see senior decision makers rostered on site after hours and at weekends.
However Conor Reidy isn’t impressed.
“None of us expected an announcement of a new Emergency Department – nothing that intelligent – but we expect something tangible, something solid. But what we got was essentially a mish-mash of already announced sticking plasters. Almost none of them are new. I mean Donnelly truly proved himself once more as the King of Spin yesterday with what he announced.”
Meanwhile the number on trolleys at UHL today is down from when Minister Donnelly visited this week.
Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show 85 patients are waiting on trolleys there, while there are 70 at University Hospital Galway, and 46 at Cork University Hospital.
555 people are waiting for beds in hospitals nationwide this afternoon.
13 of these are at TUH in Clonmel.
