Nurses highlight 'alarming' numbers of patients on trolleys for first 7 months of 2017

A record number of people had to wait on trolleys in our hospitals in the first seven months of the year, according to the INMO.

They say almost 58,000 people found themselves on trolleys in the year to July.

That is a 5% rise on the same time last year.

The INMO say the figures are "alarming" as we head into the Autumn and Winter period.

The year to date figures confirm that a number of hospitals continue to endure ever increasing levels of overcrowding and these include:

INMO General Secretary Liam Doran said: "These figures are further confirmation that our health service continues to be too small and, regardless of the initiatives that have been taken, demand continues to outstrip the capacity of the health service to provide timely, appropriate and dignified care.

"If our health service is to respond, appropriately, to both the emergency and planned admissions, additional bed capacity, and community nursing services, must be introduced.

"This will only be done when we solve the recruitment/retention crisis facing nursing and midwifery in Ireland. If we do not have additional nurses and midwives then we cannot expand our capacity and overcrowding levels will continue to grow."