Dr Fergal Hickey – HSE holds the solution to ED crowding

Although we are barely a few weeks into the 2016/17 winter, the number of patients on trolleys has passed almost twice the figure that the HSE’s unambitious Winter Initiative has set for itself as the threshold not to be exceeded (236 patients). IAEM Communications Officer, Dr Fergal Hickey, is interviewed on Morning Ireland radio and reiterates the fact that the solutions to ED crowding and the Trolley Crisis are entirely within the gift of the HSE and the Department of Health to resolve, yet the narrative coming from both agencies continuously fails to recognise their responsibility for this. This failure to address the issues unfortunately continues to risk the lives of those forced to wait excessive periods of time on trolleys in the country’s Emergency Departments.

Morning Ireland

17th November 2016