The Minister for Health says the current hospital overcrowding crisis is shameful.
Speaking on The Right Hook this evening, Leo Varadkar's admitted the situation could worsen in the next few weeks.
“The second week of January is usually the worst. In the third week of January the junior doctors change over and that makes it a very difficult time in hospitals ... we probably have not seen the worst of it," he said.
The Minister agreed with presenter Shane Coleman’s assertion that the situation is “shameful”.
Varadkar – who had been on holidays in Florida in recent days - says the situation which arose yesterday when over 600 people were waiting on trolleys and in chairs at Emergency Departments is “not acceptable”.
He also admitted the 'emergency taskforce' established to deal with hospital overcrowding has not met since before Christmas.
The Minister says that non-emergency surgeries are now being cancelled to help alleviate the crisis but he's also predicting that the situation may become even worse in the weeks ahead if there is a flu outbreak.
“Nobody should be on a trolley for more than nine hours, that is a patient safety hazard,” he said.
“I’m not going to make any promises, I’m not going to tell you I can solve all this through some sort of ministerial order or my own personality or anything like that.”
Leo Varadkar – who has just returned from a holiday to Florida - says he is going to 'double-down' the efforts to combat overcrowding but he won't promise anything.
“What I am going to say to you is that I am going to double down on this. This is an issue that I want to see resolved. I do not want to see us back here next year.”
Regarding his absence in recent days, Mr Varadkar admitted he had picked a bad time to go on holidays, but thought he “might be able to take a few days in the New Year”.
Today 584 people were waiting on trolleys in hospitals across Ireland.
Yesterday saw over 600 - a record high - waiting on a bed. Beaumont Hospital in Dublin has canceleld all planned surgeries - except cancer surgeries - for the coming week to help deal with the workload.
