Thousands of people gathered in Limerick city centre to take part in a protest march against the current overcrowding of Limerick University Hospital.
It was part of a national day of action organized by groups across the country to protest overcrowding in emergency rooms.
Marches and rallies were held in Limerick, Navan and various locations across the country.
Campaign groups are calling for an increase in capacity in hospital emergency rooms and an end to downgrading services in others.
The Limerick protest was organized by the Mid West Hospital Campaign together with Friends of Ennis Hospital and groups from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary with an estimated attendance of over 10,000 people.
They are protesting persistent overcrowding in the region’s only emergency room at UHL, the busiest emergency room in the country.
There was initially a minute’s silence to remember the 126 people waiting for trolleys last April, the highest number of days in hospital on record.
The HSE said the flu virus which led to unprecedented hospitalizations at UHL this month has subsided and deeply regrets the impact it is having on patients and staff.
Health Minister Stephan Donnelly said he and his officers would regularly exchange views with the HSE on the situation in the emergency room to improve patient access and support medical staff.
An action committee is formed after a rally of 150-200 people at Letterkenny University Hospital.
Local Aontú candidate Mary T. Sweeney introduced several speakers, adding that people should not tolerate a health system that is “mismanaged” and where there are too many people in administration.
Minister of State for Legal Reform James Browne said €24 billion will be investing in healthcare this year.
“We’ve seen deficient investment for a significant amount of time and we are now seeing record investment in capacity,” he said, reports RTE.
Gary Gannon, Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central, said the overcrowding crisis was causing loss of life.
He said every €40 of taxpayers’ money goes to health care, but added: “We can’t keep throwing money into a broken system,” reports RTE.
On the reopening of emergency rooms closed for 24 hours, he said that if it was a short-term measure that would ease the system and save lives, the Social Democrats would support it.
Meanwhile, many people on social media are claiming that the enormous amount of migrants flooding into the country are just adding to the overcrowding crisis.
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