Galway City Tribune – Galway’s main public hospitals are in ‘emergency overcrowding mode’ 80% of the time, it has been revealed.
New figures show that Galway University Hospitals (UHG and Merlin Park) implemented a Full Capacity Protocol (FCP) on nearly 300 occasions during 2017 – indicating that ‘emergency’ is now the norm.
Full Capacity Protocol is an emergency measure implemented when hospitals are severely overcrowded.
Sinn Féin City Councillor Mairéad Farrell said the Galway figures show the hospital has gone beyond crisis point.
“Full Capacity Protocol is a hospital’s highest-level measure for dealing with emergency department overcrowding. In a properly functioning hospital it should be implemented only in exceptional circumstances.
“That it was invoked 298 times in Galway University Hospital during 2017, apart from being hard to comprehend, is completely unacceptable and a sign of a hospital that is beyond crisis point,” said Cllr Farrell.
GUH had the third highest use of FCP, after Waterford where it was invoked 327 times and South Tipperary General where it was used 306 times.
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