The trolley crisis in smaller regional hospitals is being overlooked in favour of headline grabbing figures at larger healthcare facilities.
That's the concern highlighted by Roscommon/Galway TD Denis Naughten who believes the crisis is impacting smaller local hospitals such as Portiuncula Hospital Ballinasloe.
According to research released by the Independent TD, the availability of beds in the hospital is the key to measuring the impact of the issue, with larger hospital able to tackle waiting lists more effectively due to a higher number of beds in the facility.
Deputy Naughten says that if 20 patients are waiting for a bed at Portiuncula Hospital, that is over 12 percent of their entire bed capacity of 157.
Speaking to Shannonside FM News, the deputy says that staff at Portiuncula are under some of the worst pressure of any other hospital:
'Hospital's like Portiuncula are being ignored as we're looking at the big headline numbers in the likes of Limerick.
But in fact, the pressure that the staff in Portiuncula is under is worse than the pressure that any other hospital is under in terms of its ED anywhere else in the country.
This needs to be recognised, it needs to be acknowledged and the funding provided.'
