Hospital overcrowding examined in ‘Ward Watch’ initiative

» John Hedges

An Phoblacht Editor

'The new Ward Watch/Trolley Watch combined measure has therefore been brought forward at the request of our members,' says INMO.

THE Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has launched ‘Ward Watch’, a daily summary of overcrowding in hospitals.

This initiative will be published alongside the long-standing ‘Trolley Watch’ to give what the INMO says will be “a new combined overall measure of hospital overcrowding”.

The INMO says:

“The Ward Watch findings will confirm that a number of hospitals are regularly overcrowding their in-patient wards. This practice compromises the care of all patients on those wards due to an increased risk of cross-infection and inadequate staffing while also minimising the dignity and privacy to these patients.”

The union says that the figures will also confirm that progress has been made in a number of hospitals in reducing the number of patients on trolleys but that, in others, the level of overcrowding continues. This is leading to an overall state-wide increase in the number of patients placed on trolleys/beds “in inappropriate care environments”.

The INMO adds:

“The INMO remains fundamentally opposed to the placing of additional beds/trolleys, above the stated complement, on any in-patient ward/unit.

“The new Ward Watch/Trolley Watch combined measure has therefore been brought forward at the request of our members, in the frontline, who experience patients being placed in inappropriate locations on an ongoing basis.”