635 patients are without a bed in Irish hospitals today according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. This includes 90 patients in Cork University Hospital, a new overcrowding record for that hospital.
The top five most overcrowded hospitals in the country include:
1. University Hospital Limerick – 99 patients
2. Cork University Hospital – 90 patients
3. Tallaght University Hospital – 42 patients
4. St. Vincent’s University Hospital – 41 patients
5. Letterkenny University Hospital – 41 patients
INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations for the Southern region, Colm Porter said:
Today we have seen yet another overcrowding record broken in Cork University Hospital with over 90 patients without a bed across the emergency department and other wards in the hospital. This is completely unacceptable.
Our members in CUH are under constant significant pressure that is showing no signs of abating as the situation continues to get worse in their workplace. As the union representing nurses working across the hospital, we continue to raise health and safety concerns with hospital management on a near-daily basis.
There has been no real or meaningful plan to support the CUH Emergency Department and its surrounds when it comes to increasing bed capacity since the last time an overcrowding record was reached there in September 2022. Urgent engagement is required to ensure that discharge facilities are available in the community.
It is clear that there must be a laser-like focus from both the South/South-West Hospital Group itself and the HSE nationally to tackling the scale of overcrowding in Cork University Hospital.