Over-75s are waiting an average of nearly 24 hours on trolleys for admission to emergency departments, shocking statistics reveal.
The average delay for all patients is 12 hours, but it goes up to 14 hours for some of the most vulnerable elderly.
Some EDs, such as Cork’s University and Mercy University hospitals, exceed the average and have over-75s waiting even longer than 24 hours.
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Sinn Fein’s health spokesman, David Cullinane, received the figures from the HSE in response to a Parliamentary Question.
Mr Cullinane said: “The Government must take a zero tolerance approach to hospital overcrowding and long emergency department waits.
“Patients have been suffering the torturous consequences of overcrowding for years, but these figures show that the problem has reached a new extreme. For April, ED waits are 12 hours on average, and almost 14 hours for patients over 75. That is totally unacceptable.
“In the two major Cork hospitals, patients aged over 75 are waiting on average more than 24 hours – over a day – for admission through an emergency department.
“Older patients across Galway, Limerick, South Dublin, and Kildare are waiting more than 19 hours for admission through an emergency department. That is not the extreme end of the scale – that is the average, and it is both shocking and frightening for those patients and anyone looking on.
“The root causes of emergency department dysfunction are low hospital capacity, poor management of resources, delayed discharges, low out-of-hours GP coverage and a lack of alternatives in the community.”
Mr Cullinane said hospitals needed to “act on each other’s successes and failures”. He added: “It is the minister’s responsibility to ensure that the HSE is implementing best practice in each and every hospital. We urgently need a zero-tolerance plan to end excessive emergency department waits.”
HSE chief Paul Reid defended the waiting times for over-75s when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee yesterday.
He said: “What we are seeing is increased levels of presentation for over 75s.
“Obviously people with more complex needs need more care, both in the emergency department, and progressing through, that is one of the reasons why.”
The latest worrying news comes after the Irish Mirror revealed last month that 85,000 pensioners aged over 75 are on hospital waiting lists for operations and that 25,000 of these are waiting for a procedure for over a year.
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