The current overcrowding crisis in Emergency Departments (EDs) nationwide ‘can't go on', but may get worse before it gets better, Health Minister, Leo Varadkar, has said.

He made his long awaited comments during a week when the number of patients waiting on trolleys broke the 600 barrier. A total of 601 patients were waiting on trolleys on Tuesday and this fell only slightly to 584 on Wednesday.

While acknowledging the ‘difficulties' faced by patients, their families and staff, Minister Varadkar said he expected the overcrowding problem to get even worse next week, as the second week in January is often busier than the first.

He said that he convened the ED Taskforce before Christmas and is now ‘bringing forward the next meeting to next week' to further assess the situation.

He insisted that there are ‘lots of different factors that contribute to overcrowding in emergency departments and some of the precise reasons will vary from hospital to hospital and therefore the precise measures to be taken will also vary'.

"I am convinced that the only way that this can be addressed is through local leadership and management and effective local communication. I want to satisfy myself that this is happening," he commented.

Minister Varadkar emphasised that all hospitals have escalation plans in place, including the opening of additional overflow areas and reducing the amount of non-emergency surgeries.

Discussing the issue of opening closed beds, the Minister insisted that hospitals ‘do open additional beds regularly to cope with surges'. However, he pointed out that each bed that is opened has to be ‘adequately and safety staffed and we know there are many difficulties with recruiting staff'.

He also highlighted that many beds continue to be occupied by people who no longer require acute care, so dealing with these patients ‘is key to efficient patient flow'.

Meanwhile according to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), the current crisis is ‘a manifestation of the failure to create suitable working conditions for all medical staff combined with increased attendance at public hospitals'.

"Additional staff and beds are urgently required to deal with the atrocious conditions that exist. The HSE's recent decision to implement new restrictions on the employment of agency staff, effective from January 1, without having dealt with the underlying problems may have exacerbated the current crisis in circumstances where the HSE is failing to fill NCHD (junior doctor) and consultant posts," commented IHCA president, Dr Gerard Crotty.

He described the cancellation of non-emergency surgeries as ‘unfortunate', as this ‘will result in the condition of some cancelled surgical patients deteriorating such that they will have to be admitted through EDs'.

Furthermore, these cancellations will only add to elective waiting lists which have already increased by around 20% in the last year.

Dr Crotty added that at their annual conference in October, consultants had highlighted the fact that the number of patients on trolleys during the summer months was already higher than usual and this would only get worse during the winter if action was not taken.

Read Niall Hunter's take on the current crisis here