St Luke’s General Hospital for Carlow and Kilkenny had the biggest reduction in the number of patients on trolleys in the South East in the first five months of this year.
The Department of Health says across the country the number of people left waiting for a bed was down by 14% compared to the same period in 2023 marking a drop of 7,800.
That’s despite 62,000 more people presenting at emergency departments during the same time frame.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly in an update to Cabinet outlined how our local facility saw a decrease of 55% while Tipperary University Hospital was down by 37%.
Minister Donnelly said; “I want to pay tribute to staff in emergency departments, and throughout hospitals and community services who have contributed to this improved performance, despite a large increase in the number of patients presenting to emergency departments.
“Trolley numbers also fell last year. Our goal is to ensure all patients can access beds when they need them. This has already happened in some hospitals, including University Hospital Waterford and the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore. There have been no patients on trolleys in Waterford for years and Tullamore has had no patients on trolleys to date this year. We are making real progress, although we have more to do.”
There has been a significant increase in capacity under this Government – with an additional 28,500 people working in our health service since the end of 2019 and 1,182 acute hospital beds as well as hundreds of additional community beds since the end of 2019.
Minister Donnelly, added; “We have delivered an unprecedented increase in funding of our health service over the last four years, and there is now more staff and more hospital beds than ever before. These additional staff and beds are having an impact, as are the increased number of senior decision makers working evenings and weekends. Weekend discharges increased by 23% this year.
“We are also seeing better operational grip across the HSE and better management at individual hospitals which can be seen in the improved performance at these hospitals. This has led to better patient flow. The number of delayed transfers of care has fallen considerably, although we need to see even more progress.
“This is a great tribute to the hard work and dedication of hospital and community staff who have worked together to ensure patients get timely treatment and assessment and, as a result, receive the most appropriate care to meet their needs.”
Meanwhile, a visitor ban remains in place at St Luke’s.
