More than 114,000 individuals were admitted to hospital without a bed in 2025 and were instead treated on trolleys, among them over 1,248 children.
These figures come from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Trolley Watch, which maintains a daily count of patients waiting on trolleys in hospitals throughout Ireland, reports Breaking News.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Yet another year has passed with an unacceptably high number of patients being treated on trolleys, chairs and in other inappropriate bed spaces. Nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals must not continue to shoulder public anger arising from repeated failures in planning across the health service.
“While there has been a slight reduction in the number of patients being treated in an inappropriate space in our hospitals, the reliance on surge beds, which are not properly staffed, is a cause of concern, reports Breaking News.
“There needs to be a turning point in how healthcare staffing is planned and managed, and it needs to start with an immediate filling of all funded posts while also focusing on capacity, staffing and conditions across acute and community services.
“The continued use of trolleys and reliance on surge capacity mean that too many nurses are routinely working short-staffed. In many hospitals, unfilled rosters are becoming the norm rather than the exception, creating increasingly unsafe conditions for both nurses and patients in our hospitals.
The INMO said that in March, healthcare unions were “assured” that the recruitment of posts would be a priority for the HSE, but “it is clear this couldn’t be further from the case”, reports Breaking News.
“Over 6,500 funded posts are still vacant. We were told barriers to recruitment would be removed, yet authority is not being delegated to allow clinical decision-makers to fill posts.”
On Wednesday, the most overcrowded hospitals were University Hospital Limerick, with 22,473 patients; University Hospital Galway, with 11,630 patients; Cork University Hospital, with 10,113 patients, and Sligo University Hospital and St Vincent’s University Hospital, reports Breaking News.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
