1,000 signatures reached
To: The Irish Government
Take Private Hospitals Into Public Use To Deal With the Trolley Emergency
Our lives are being put at risk due to the dangerous overcrowding levels in public hospitals. Space in private hospitals needs to be acquired to alleviate the crisis.
Why is this important?
Our hospitals are more overcrowded than ever before. There are almost 1,000 patients without beds in Irish hospitals today as the trolley crisis hits a new record high.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said this is the largest number of patients left without a hospital bed since the union started counting trolley figures in 2006.
Hospitals are now dangerously overcrowded. The Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) has advised the worst-hit hospitals to enact emergency protocols.
In 2020, in anticipation of possible surges in hospitals, the Irish government reached an agreement with private hospitals to access their capacity for three months to alleviate pressure on the public system, as part of its comprehensive response to the pandemic.
The overcrowing situation in Irish hospitals is now critical and so we're asking the government to respond to this crisis in the same way they did the Covid-19 crisis when they reached agreements with private hospitals to ease capacity in public hospitals.
Allowing public patients to use private hospitals is the fastest way to alleviate the current dangers facing patients and staff in overcrowded public hospitals.