'Worst hospital overcrowding' since pandemic began as 380 on trolleys

Cork University Hospital is the worst-hit, with 47 people waiting for a bed. Picture: Dan Linehan

More than 380 patients are on hospital trolleys in Irish hospitals this morning, in what the INMO is calling the "worst hospital overcrowding" since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

While today is the highest number of patients without beds since March 2020, the second-highest was on May 11, 2021, when 376 were waiting.

Cork University Hospital is the worst hit with 47 people waiting for a bed, followed by the university hospitals in Limerick and Galway with 41 and 39 respectively.

Sligo and Mayo university hospitals make up the remainder of the top 5 with 26 apiece.

The INMO says that the temporary closure of Bantry General Hospital is a likely contributor to the overcrowding at the CUH.

INMO general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, says that the health service is "rapidly swinging" from a Covid-19 crisis back into an overcrowding crisis.

"The HSE said at the start of the pandemic that overcrowding would not be tolerated, but it has been on the rise consistently in recent months," Ms Ní Sheaghdha said.

“Our members cannot withstand the pressures of overcrowding twinned with the pressure of another wave of Covid."

The INMO says that if the health service continues along its current trajectory, patients and staff will find themselves in a "dire situation."

The union says services in badly his hospitals need to be scaled back, as well as "taking on extra capacity from private hospitals, and supporting GPs to return to their normal clinical work.”