The charity ALONE is urging government figures to prioritise home care packages and community health care services for the elderly to help alleviate the trolley crisis.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation reported a record high of 677 people on trolleys and wards awaiting a bed in Irish hospitals today, Wednesday, January 3rd.
Sean Moynihan, CEO of ALONE said: “Today’s trolley crisis highlights the urgent need for support coordination for older people in Ireland. With 20K people turning 65 years of age each year, our current health system is not equipped to deal with this.”
Moynihan also stated that there are 170K old people currently living alone and Alone believes that: “Older people are ending up in hospital unnecessarily, and we believe that this is due to a lack of support for older people in the community.”
He continued: “There are many older people who are well enough to be at home provided they have adequate support. However they cannot be discharged as there are no options of care available to them or their homes are not suitably adapted for their needs.”
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