Head of HSE asks staff to volunteer to work over June Bank Holiday weekend

The head of the HSE has written to staff to ask them to volunteer to work over the June bank holiday weekend.

CEO Bernard Gloster asked staff to take on extra shifts to avoid a “dreadful position” in hospitals following previous long weekends.

He said further overcrowding would have “implications for the rest of the healthcare system”.

After the May Bank Holiday weekend there were over 700 patients being treated on trolleys in overcrowded hospitals around the country with 87 of those patients at Cork’s three emergency hospitals

Retired consultant in emergency medicine, Dr. Fergal Hickey, believes bed capacity would need to be addressed in any case:

“Having any number of additional senior decision makers will not solve the bed capacity problem. It’ll make care for individuals potentially better. But if they have no bed to go to once a decision is made that they require hospital admission, then the gridlock will continue and he has chosen since he’s taken over the role as CEO to studiously ignore that fact.”