Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has told senior health officials a high-level public servant will have to be sacked “for accountability” if the trolley crisis in hospitals is not fixed.
In a candid internal email sent three weeks ago, he said the problems of patients waiting on trolleys for admission to hospital was “worrying” and he was concerned as to what would happen in the winter months.
“I have no reason to believe it won’t be worse than last year and that really means a head or heads will have to roll.”
“The people or Dáil or Taoiseach can take mine in the election or thereafter but we’ll need an official/executive head to roll before that or there is no accountability.”
At a meeting two weeks ago of the group overseeing the implementation of the recent emergency department task force report, Mr Varadkar made comments verbally about removing staff if the trolley situation did not improve.
The Department of Health said on Monday night it would not comment on the Minister’s email.
The Minister’s comments came against the backdrop of a new attempt by the Government to tackle overcrowding in emergency departments and large numbers of patients forced to stay on trolleys while awaiting hospital admission .
Earlier this month Mr Varadkar announced a new €18 million “winter initiative” aimed at tackling such overcrowding. This includes the opening of about 300 hospital beds and follows a €70 million package of measures announced in April by the Government.
Measures
The measures announced in April, while successful in many regards, did not break the back of the trolley and overcrowding problem in hospitals.
The Irish Times understands that in a separate email sent to the head of the HSE Tony O'Brien on June 30th in response to a report that showed there were 358 patients on trolleys at that time – more than 140 higher than in the same period in 2014 – the Minister said: "Were (sic) definitely losing this battle at the moment. Any thoughts?"
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said there were 385 people on trolleys in hospital emergency departments and wards awaiting admission to a bed.
The HSE said Mr O’Brien would take over the chair of the emergency department taskforce until next March.
