Total of 760 patients waiting on trolleys, with Limerick and Cork worst hit

Patients at University Hospital Limerick are the worst affected, with 92 waiting on trolleys, followed by Cork University Hospital with 76 patients without a bed.

The number of patients waiting for a hospital bed has now reached 760, only the second time on record the numbers have been this high, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisations said.

Patients at University Hospital Limerick are the worst affected, with 92 waiting on trolleys, followed by Cork University Hospital with 76 patients without a bed.

Both Kerry and Tipperary university hospitals are also affected, with 20 and 19 patients on trolleys respectively in those smaller units.

Other hospitals under severe pressure include St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, with 49 patients on trolleys, and the Mater Hospital with 41, as well as other hospitals outside Dublin including Letterkenny with 41 and St Luke's in Kilkenny with 45. 

INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said it was unacceptable and dangerous to have this many patients waiting on trolleys or chairs for a bed.

“Today’s trolley figures are unacceptably high. This level of overcrowding is a danger to patients and staff, alike,” Ms Ní Sheaghdha said.

“The HSE, Government and each individual hospital group must take urgent action today and pull every lever available to them to ease the pressure in our hospitals. The INMO has this morning urged the worst-impacted hospitals to enact their emergency protocols.” 

The only other time this many sick people could not get a bed, according to INMO records, was on January 6, 2020, when the count also reached 760. The union said this was “the highest day of overcrowding on record.” 

Crisis predictable

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said this crisis was predictable, and that the INMO and hospital consultants have been warning this would happen.

“The INMO has been calling on the HSE and Government to take extraordinary measures including the complete use of private hospitals and curtailment of non-urgent elective care since the summer. It is not too late to bring private hospitals on the pitch. We cannot accept this level of unsafety for patients and staff,” she urged.

She called on the Government to heed warnings from nurses and doctors working on the frontlines.

“Behind these figures are patients who are being stripped of their dignity and privacy while being deemed sick enough to be admitted to hospital,” she said.

“We know that more often than not our members are working in conditions that are unsafely staffed, meaning that providing safe care in an overcrowded environment is impossible.” 

She stressed the health services cannot cope with this level of overcrowding on a daily basis.

“Serious and immediate intervention is needed today from the new Taoiseach and the minister for health,” she said.

The surge of patients is likely connected to the recent days of freezing weather coupled with an increase in cases of flu and Covid-19.

Among the hospitals coping well with the surge of illness are Waterford University Hospital with just two patients on trolleys, Connolly Hospital in Dublin with three and Beaumont Hospital with seven.