Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD, Seán Crowe, has said that the implementation of full capacity protocols a whopping 3,541 times in hospitals across the state in 2017 is a dire signal of a health service beyond its crisis point.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“Full capacity protocol is a hospital’s highest-level measure for dealing with Emergency Department overcrowding. In a properly functioning health service and should only be implemented in exceptional circumstances.

“It was invoked a whopping 3,541 times in hospitals across the State in 2017. This is clearly unacceptable and a dire signal of a health service that has moved beyond crisis point, for patients, and the staff working under these conditions. It is supposed to the last stage of escalation under a national framework issued in 2015 to hospitals to deal with overcrowding.

“When full capacity protocol is invoked much of the normal activity of the hospital is suspended, additional patients are moved onto wards and hallways outside of emergency units, and oftentimes elective surgeries at the hospital can be cancelled.

“It is abundantly clear that because the full capacity protocol being invoked continuously that record breaking numbers of patients are being left on trolleys and that many electives surgeries are being postponed and rescheduled supposedly until the situation improves.

“This current situation is cruel and puts added pressure on patients and their families.  It also puts huge and untold pressure on the staff who are expected to work in this pressure cooker atmosphere.

“Imagine how it must feel for those unfortunate patients whose surgery have been cancelled at the eleventh hour and they are left in chronic pain. Many have arranged extra time off work or for someone to look after their children. This is the reality and outworking of the invocation of full capacity protocol and another indication that our health service has moved beyond crisis point.”

ENDS