The health service does not have the funding to tackle the trolley crisis, Sinn Féin has said. 

The IMNO has described 2023 as the “worst year” for overcrowding since it began keeping records, with over 121,000 patients forced to wait for treatment without a bed. 

Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast, Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane said there is a “real crisis in our emergency departments”. 

“Some of those patients who are waiting on hospital trolleys we know are over the age of 75,” he said. 

“Many of them are waiting for 24 hours or more.” 

This year, the number of people over 75 waiting more than 24 hours for care has come down by 11%, according to the HSE. 

Deputy Cullinane described this as “still far too high” and said there should be a focus on increasing bed capacity. 

“The Minister for Health promised 1,500 rapid build beds three times this year,” he said. 

“On three occasions he said that about 700 of those beds would be delivered in 2024, it was only confirmed at the Oireachtas Health Committee last week that there was no funding for those beds. 

“The Minister was talking about these beds time and again during the course of this year and then, when Budget 2024 [happened, he] stopped talking about the beds because we know the levels of funding for healthcare wasn’t what it should have been.”

Budget

The health service was allocated €22.5 billion to spend in October’s Budget but a former Director-General of the HSE has warned the number “don’t stack up” and more funding will be needed. 

“There is no new money for new measures, the health service hasn’t even been given the money to stand still,” Deputy Cullinane said. 

“We know all the clinical programmes and national strategies will be starved of new funding next year.”

Last week, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told the Irish Examiner hospitals would do “everything they can” to provide patients with beds. 

Main image: A patient on a trolley in a hospital. Picture by: Josie Elias / Stockimo / Alamy Stock Photo