Tag Archives: Hopital Overcrowding

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Minister for Health Simon Harris

There has been a significant increase in flu like illnesses. GPs are reporting a 50 per cent increase in flu patients and there has been a 20 per cent increase in people over 75 with flu,…It was easy to predict that this was going to happen after the event. None of the evidence indicated this severe a problem.”

Minister for Health Simon Harris (above) on Newstalk’s Breakfast this morning. The number of people on hospital trolleys remains at over 600 today.

Ken Foxe writes:

….Except the HSE had warned that the winter initiative could be ineffective if there was an outbreak of flu, bad weather and so on in their draft plan

The HSE had been keen to say that targets set in the initiative might not be met depending on circumstances.

In particular, they had warned of “unusually high demand” particularly among older people, the potential for flu, and the possible impact of weather conditions.

And what did the Department of Health do? They asked that this warning be moved prior to publication of the plan so they could emphasise the “positive effects” of the initiative.

Good times.

Health Minister says nobody could see overcrowding crisis coming … except for HSE who warned Department of Health and were asked to downplay risk (Ken Foxe)

Patients on trolleys still over 600, latest figures show (Vivienne Clarke, Irish Times)

Rollingnews