Action urged on homecare as trolley crisis continues

Sick children were taken from Portiuncula Hospital to Mullingar for treatment in recent days due to severe overcrowding.
Both UHG and Portiuncula Hospital are creaking under the pressure of high admissions – while bed spaces and staffing levels limit the capacity of both facilities to care for patients.
Today, the full capacity protocol remains in place at UHG, with 40 patients on trolleys or in over-capacity wards.
The hospital has been in a near-constant code black situation over the past 3 months due to increasing demand.
At Portiuncula, Deputy Eugene Murphy says demand is so high that sick children have been sent elsewhere, while patients in their 80s and 90s are finding themselves on trolleys.
In the Dáil, Deputy Murphy has highlighted an alleged crisis in the awarding of home care packages in Galway.
The packages are designed to take the pressure off the hospital system by allowing patients to be cared for at home – freeing up beds and saving the State money.
Speaking in the Dáil, Deputy Murphy said the current situation is nothing short of a disgrace.