A&E overcrowding still major problem, warn nurses

SEVERE difficulties remain in reducing the number of patients waiting on trolleys in some hospitals outside Dublin, nurses warned yesterday.

They claimed that while Dublin hospitals achieved a 33% reduction in the number of patients on trolleys over the past 12 months, the decrease was less than 2% for hospitals outside the capital.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), who published an analysis of their daily trolley figures yesterday, said A&E overcrowding was still a major problem in hospitals in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, Drogheda, Co Louth, Castlebar, Co Mayo, and Limerick.