A Tipperary TD claims up to 134 patients forced to wait more than six to eight hours for admittance to a hospital bed last month may have died as a result of this unacceptable wait.
Deputy Michael Lowry says this highlights the urgent need to take a new approach to the challenges within our health service.
The figure of 134 patient deaths is based on the INMO figures which revealed over 11,000 patients were waiting on trollies for a bed last month while a study just published in the Emergency Medicine Journal indicates that for every 82 people forced to wait more than six to eight hours for admittance to a hospital, there is one death above the expected mortality rate.
The Regional Group of TDs – which Michael Lowry is part of – will move a motion in the Dáil tomorrow seeking to overhaul the delivery of pre-hospital emergency care services.
“We have to spend more on community services. We have to ensure that people are looked after in the community to take pressure off the health services such as the likes of Clonmel and University Hospital Limerick.
“But what is being said bout supporting community services is actually not being delivered. People and families who wish to care for those who are elderly or sick at home – they’re simply not getting the supports.”
Deputy Lowry also told Tipp Today earlier that the system is also getting clogged up once someone is well enough to leave hospital.
“We also have the situation where – and there’s huge evidence now to show – that people are in acute hospital beds in Limerick, in Clonmel and other hospitals around the country that should have been discharged earlier which would make the bed free for somebody else to come in who needs medical care. The reason they’re still in those beds is that there is no step down facilities there for them. We simply don’t have enough step down beds.”
