The country’s emergency departments are open for urgent care this St Patrick’s Weekend – but people should avoid them unless they really need them.

That’s according to the HSE Chief Clinical Officer who is urging anyone with “lower priority problems” to seek care from doctors and pharmacies outside of the hospital setting.

Dr Colm Henry says the HSE is taking steps to relieve pressure on the country’s dangerously overcrowded hospitals after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisations warned the situation is now “out of control”.

On Wednesday, the HSE said the numbers of people on trolleys in Emergency Departments across was up 30% on the same day last year.

St Patrick's Day

The St Patrick’s Bank Holiday weekend is always one of the busiest times of the year and the HSE is urging people to attend only in an emergency.

“Our emergency departments are open for urgent emergency care,” said Dr Henry.

“People should know how to access them where they are and how to access the ambulance service should it be needed.

“What we are urging is for people who have lower priority problems that don’t need urgent emergency care to consider out of hours GPs, to consider local injury units, pharmacies and of course self-help information is available on the HSE website.”

INMO

Yesterday, there were 553 admitted patients waiting for beds in Ireland’s hospitals – with 415 in emergency departments and 138 in wards.

University Hospital Limerick was the worst affected with 101 patients waiting for care, with Cork University Hospital coming in second with 66.

The Dublin hospitals are all also badly impacted.

Hospitals

Dr Henry said the HSE is working with the worst-impacted hospitals.

“We’ve been engaging directly with those hospitals that are most under pressure in the past few days to encourage as many discharges as possible,” he said.

“To ensure that senior decision makers are present on the ground, ensuring good flow of patients through the hospital so we continuously make beds up in the wards for those patients coming through the emergency departments and of course facilitating discharge from the hospitals back into the community.”

"Very concerning"

He said the situation is “very concerning”.

“We’re concerned about this, not just from the point of view of discomfort for patients and staff but also in terms of patient safety, particularly for those patients who have been triaged and are waiting to be seen,” he said.

“For those who have be seen and are awaiting admission, it is certainly not good and it is not an ideal situation.

“It is less than safe for these patients to be waiting long periods of time.”

He said senior managers must be in place at all hospitals this weekend to ensure adequate patient flow through the system.