The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) reported that about 600 people were waiting on trolleys in hospitals throughout the nation on Thursday morning, reports Breaking News.
Overcrowding was most severe at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), where 109 patients were waiting for beds. Cork University Hospital had 46 people waiting, followed by University Hospital Galway, which had 45.
The INMO said that 403 people were waiting in emergency departments across the country, with another 196 in other wards, reports Breaking News.
According to HSE records, 429 individuals were waiting on trolleys in HSE-run hospitals on Thursday.
There were 67 people waiting in UHL and 50 in St Vincent’s University Hospital. Tallaght University Hospital has 33 patients awaiting a spare bed, according to the HSE’s daily urgent and emergency care report, reports Breaking News.
The HSE tallies people waiting on trolleys or additional beds that have been put in unsuitable locations in hospital wards.
The INMO also covers patients who were placed on hallways or chairs in other sections of hospitals while waiting for a bed.
The findings come after the Minister for Health stated that an increase in the number of patients on trolleys over the February bank holiday weekend was “cause for concern”, reports Breaking News.
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill presented a report to Cabinet on Tuesday regarding urgent and emergency care in February.
She attributed the jump to two factors: a shortage of bed space and what she described as a tendency of increased tram numbers after weekends.
Ms Carroll MacNeill told RTÉ radio that she had requested HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster to conduct a “deeper dive” into consultant rosters and “maximise” the public consultant contract, and to report back in two weeks, reports Breaking News.
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