Over 9,755 people, including 73 children, were treated on a trolley, chair or other inappropriate bed space in Irish hospitals in July according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
The top 5 most overcrowded hospitals include:
- University Hospital Limerick 2255 patients
- Galway University Hospital 1025 patients
- Cork University Hospital 999
- Sligo University Hospital 851
- St Vincent’s University Hospital 537
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said:
The level of overcrowding this July has been really worrying and is an indicator for what we can expect for the remainder of 2024 unless meaningful action is taken by the HSE and individual hospital groups. The trolley figures for July are a clear indicator that the INMO’s call over the past five years for winter planning to commence immediately must now be heeded as the level of demand will only continue to increase over the coming months.
Over 26% of patients on trolleys this month were placed on a trolley or chair in wards outside of the emergency department. Over 20,287 patients have been treated on a trolley outside of the emergency department so far this year. This is a worrying trend that should not be accepted. The medical implications of long-term stays on trolleys are well flagged, allowing patients to be treated on wards that are already short-staffed puts patient safety at further risk.
Putting additional patients on trolleys on already busy medical and surgical wards makes safe nurse staffing impossible. The HSE must now set out what their plan is for the remainder of the year and into the beginning of 2025 to ensure that all medical and surgical wards have the correct level of nurse staffing. Putting sick patients on trolleys on already busy wards in addition to overcrowded emergency departments is an ad-hoc approach to a chronic problem that can be only be resolved by additional bed capacity coupled with appropriate nurse staffing levels.