It'll cost more than 100 million euro to fix the overcrowding crisis in Ireland's hospital emergency departments.
That's according to internal HSE estimates outlined in today's Irish Times.
A number of short term measures to deal with the issue are outlined in Department of Health records, including taking hospitals off-call, or diverting ambulances.
Health Minister Leo Varadkar says a report being prepared by an emergency taskforce will provide a 'clearer picture' of what's needed to deal with the problems.
Figures released by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation on Friday show that 452 people were waiting on trolleys in A&E’s around the country.
The figure was down from 460 on Friday the week before and 514 on Tuesday of last week.
Speaking at the opening of the Mater Private Hospital’s new Emergency Department in Dublin this morning, Minister Leo Varadkar says things are slowly improving.
Meanwhile, figures obtained by Newstalk Lunchtime show that more than 1,700 scheduled surgical procedures were cancelled at Irish hospitals in the month of January.
It includes 1044 inpatient cases and 711 day cases which were cancelled or postponed.
