Already swamped hospital emergency departments are seeing a spike in older people with serious conditions which have worsened because they delayed seeking treatment during the pandemic.
As the Irish Examiner reports, The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) has demanded the rollout of dedicated rapid access clinics in general medicine and surgery in a bid to reduce the current congestion in Emergency departments (EDs).
Figures from the HSE show there were 23,792 ED attendances for the week ending July 25th, up 20 per cent on the same period last year, and up 11 per cent when compared to the same period in 2019.
The 3,279 over 75s who presented to EDs in that same week was 18 per cent higher than during the same period last year and 15 per cent higher than the same week in 2019.
Dr Fergal Hickey, consultant in emergency medicine at Sligo hospital and spokesman for the IAEM, said the increased ED attendances were being driven by a rise in genuinely sick people, falls and injuries, delayed presentations and people who have “given up” trying to get through to their GPs.
Chronic conditions
“Many of those are elderly people who realise the wheels have come off the wagon. They are people who have chronic conditions, like chronic kidney disease, and weren’t getting their regular services or supports [during the lockdown],” he said.
"Now their chronic condition has deteriorated. They're running into crisis.”
Dr Hickey said there were also people who delayed presenting to hospital during the worst of the pandemic, though it was less frequent than in previous waves.
“We saw people who showed up a week after having a stroke or three or four days after a heart attack,” he added.
Holidays within Ireland have also exacerbated the overcrowding in EDs, with an increase in injuries as a result of falls from mountains, cliffs, piers and trampolines, he added.
There were 217 people on trolleys as of 8am on Friday morning, 154 of whom were in EDs, according to the latest trolleywatch figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO).
UHL is one of Ireland's most overcrowded hospitals.
In the last six months, over 110 new beds have been added - yet there are still patients on trolleys.
INMO nurses in UHL are calling for the Minister of Health to intervene and investigate why.
See https://t.co/ZMMEtekWbw pic.twitter.com/WBvtW2YBjs— Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (@INMO_IRL) July 28, 2021
The cyberattack is also continuing to have “massive impacts” on the hospital system, Dr Hickey said, with this impact combined with increased demand resulting in many EDs struggling with the patient workload.
HSE chief executive Paul Reid said hospital services have been under a lot of pressure.
“There is significant reporting of delayed presentations – people who didn’t present themselves during Covid. And a significant proportion of those presentations are from older people needing, in most cases, high acute care,” he said.
