HSE chief, Tony O'Brien, takes charge of taskforce tackling A&E overcrowding
The Director General of the Health Service Executive, Tony O’Brien, is to take over the emergency department taskforce from today.
The HSE says the decision was taken as a result of the ongoing challenges experienced by many hospital emergency departments across the country.
The INMO claims 241 patients are waiting on trolleys for beds in hospitals across Ireland.
Yesterday, the Health Minister, Leo Varadkar, said 300 hospital beds are to be made available to help alleviate overcrowding in Emergency Departments.
Tony O’Brien says he decided to take over the Chair of the taskforce to ensure all services are optimised in order to deal with the issue.
He said: "So for this time of year, the number of people being reported on trollies on the daily trolley count, and in particular the numbers staying too long on trollies, is higher than I think is safe or sustainable going into the winter.
"We have now put into place hospital groups, I have authority over all of those, my colleagues in the implementation group haven't had that authority.
"I want to bring that authority to bear to make sure that these new structures that we have put in place are very clear about the priority that attaches to this issue."
