Hospital Discharge Numbers To Increase This Week Amid Of Overcrowding In New Year
Hospitals are attempting to discharge as many patients as possible by the end of this week in anticipation for a spike in patient overcrowding after Christmas.
Elective procedures have been cancelled at some hospitals in an effort to control the numbers arriving in January.
Last year there were 931 people waiting on trolleys in emergency departments and on wards on the busiest day in January.
Chief Clinical Officer with the HSE, Dr Colm Henry, says trying to move people out of hospital before Christmas is a standard practice.
"Every year, patients empty out of [hospital] wards because that's what patients want to do.
"The patients don't want to be in hospital. They don't want to be sick.
"And every year hospital teams work to accelerate, tests, investigations and treatments to get people at home for Christmas because that's what people want.
"And that is the effect of seeing an accelerated number of discharges in the week leading up to Christmas."
