Dáil debate puts hospital overcrowding and staffing under scrutiny

Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill faced opposition criticism over hospital overcrowding and staffing during a Dáil debate on a Sinn Féin motion on Tuesday, TheJournal.ie reported.

Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane argued that the minister should take responsibility for unfilled posts and pressures on patients. Those were opposition criticisms, not independently established findings about the causes of overcrowding.

Carroll MacNeill told the Dáil that 454 patients were awaiting admission on trolleys at 8am, compared with 544 on the same day the previous week. She acknowledged that the figure was too high, according to TheJournal.ie. RTÉ separately reported that a Cabinet briefing showed morning trolley counts between 1 January and 28 October were 12% higher than the previous year.