More than 640 people waiting on beds across Irish hospitals

University Hospital Limerick. Picture Dan Linehan

There are more than 640 people waiting on beds across Irish hospitals as of Tuesday morning.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) published the figures on their Trolley Watch system.

643 patients are waiting for a bed — 516 on trolleys and a further 147 onwards.

University Hospital Limerick (UHL) is once again the worst affected facility, with 78 people on trolleys while Cork University Hospital (CUH) has 62 and the Mercy University Hospital has 27.

Both CUH and the Mercy hospital broke overcrowding records last month.

The new data comes just days after the INMO revealed that 90% of nurses and midwives are burnt out.

Almost 95% of respondents say that work is negatively impacting their psychological wellbeing.

Three-quarters have considered leaving their current work area and nine out of 10 reported being at least somewhat burnt out due to work.

The group's general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said that unsafe staffing levels have become the norm.

“Staffing is the biggest issue currently facing the health service, and this is the time to deal with it," she said.

"The failure to legislate on safe staffing is putting nurses and their patients at very serious risk, and action needs to be taken to address this once and for all.

"The fate of the entire health service is dependent on those people deciding to stick it out for another month or another year, whatever they feel they can do."