Patients in Cork forced to wait for treatment

PEOPLE living in the greater Cork area are 24 times more likely to end up being treated on a trolley in A&E department than their counterparts in Kerry, according to figures just released.

Statistics obtained from the Irish Nurses’ Organisation show over a period of 19 days last month there were 273 people on trolleys in the A&E department at Cork University Hospital and a further 240 in the Mercy Hospital.

At Kerry General Hospital in Tralee there were just 11. The figures mean that on average there were approximately 14 people on trolleys each day at CUH, 12 at the Mercy, while there was just one person every two days in Kerry.