Seriously ill children ‘half a day’ on trolleys

SERIOUSLY ill children were forced to wait more than half a day on emergency department trolleys because of closed beds, service downgrading and staff shortages at one of the country’s largest hospitals.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has warned the Mid- Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle, Limerick, is facing “dangerous, unacceptable overcrowding” as a direct result of these issues.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, the group’s industrial relations officer Mary Fogarty said at 9pm on Monday, 22 people in the emergency department could not be given beds.