Letters: Hospital crisis described as ‘state institutional abuse’

Dear Editor,

The crisis in our hospitals is a growing cause for concern and more people are suffering as a result of government underinvestment in our health service.

The situation in Tallaght Hospital has seen adult patients being placed in paediatric wards with “some young patients reportedly being left in the main corridor of the department” (Echo).

The INMO’s Trolley Ward Watch has 552 patients on trolleys around the country at the time of writing (Monday 22nd January), painting a stark picture of hospital overcrowding.

Patients are regularly being placed in conditions clearly unfit for recuperation as they lie in corridors and in Tallaght A&E patients were given a waiting time of up to fourteen hours.