Speaking after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation released their trolley figures for January, Sinn Féin health spokesperson and General Election candidate for Fingal, Louise O’Reilly, said that only true political change will solve the trolley and overcrowding crisis.

Deputy O’Reilly said:

“January saw the second worse month for overcrowding since the INMO started collecting figures as 12,024 people went without a bed in hospitals in January.

“This crisis has existed under the successive governments of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

“Hospital Emergency Departments are an incredibly important part of our acute health services.

“Almost all of us will need to use ED services at some stage in our lives, and when that is the case we want that traumatic experience to be manged as sensitively, efficiently and professionally as possible.

“However, ED services have been at crisis point for some time and the number of people left on trolleys is at record numbers.

“In order for any health service to function for patients and staff it has to have the capacity to deal with the volume of people who use it, yet the health system in this State is continuously operating at or above capacity across most services, and in the coming years demand will grow significantly.

“Sinn Féin will deliver Sláintecare and we will tackle the crisis areas of our health service by hiring more staff, improving conditions for patients and staff alike, and increasing capacity.

“Only true political change will solve the trolley and overcrowding crisis.

“Sinn Féin will deliver that change.”