Thread by @INMO_IRL

THREAD: As we've come to the end of the worst-ever week of overcrowding in Irish hospitals, you can look over the previous years using our data and this great tool from @theinfolabie:

public.tableau.com/profile/kevin.…

@theinfolabie >>The first and most obvious part? It's getting worse:

>>

@theinfolabie >>But this tool allows you to go a little deeper. People generally think of emergency departments (EDs) when they think of overcrowding.

But it's clear that it's increasingly spilling into wards across the whole hospital. These are figures for wards (excluding EDs):

@theinfolabie >> This is a key part of why you might see our figures are higher than the HSE's at times. Their focus is primarily on EDs, whereas we take in other parts of the hospital. >>

@theinfolabie >> You can also use the tool to explore individual hospitals. University Hospital #Limerick has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons this year - regularly the most overcrowded in the state.>>

@theinfolabie >>Not every hospital is increasing. Some, like OLOL Drogheda and Beaumont, made progress since 2015/16, when they got an injection of extra staffing and capacity.>>

>>But while neither are the most overcrowded in the country (as they often had been), they still face unacceptably high levels of overcrowding.

Indeed, Beaumont showed an unwelcome reversal of their positive trend in 2019.>>

>>Finally, a point we'll be emphasising in 2020 more is that it's not just about the big figures in the big hospitals.

One of the top 5 most overcrowded hospitals in 2019, for example, is South Tipp General. It's a small hospital - proportionately the most overcrowded. >>

>>South Tipp General has 176 in patient beds. Yet it has three times the number of patients on trolleys than James' - a hospital four times its size. >>

>>Is hospital overcrowding the only metric for our health service? No.

Is it the main one? No.

But it's a clear, simple indicator. Of the state of our hospitals, the conditions our amazing members work in, and points to where the persistent problem in Irish health is. >>

>> That's why, at 8am every morning, INMO staff and our members produce these figures.

We've been doing it and campaigning to fix it for 14 years. We look forward to a day when we can stop.