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University Hospital Limerick currently has the most patients being treated without a bed Alamy Stock Photo
INMO
'Dangerous' levels of hospital overcrowding with 777 people on trolleys, says INMO
The INMO said the overcrowding after the bank holiday demonstrates a “total failure in planning”.
HOSPITALS ARE SEEING ‘dangerous’ levels of overcrowding with 777 patients on trolleys as of Tuesday.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said there are over 199 people on trolleys across hospitals in Galway, Letterkenny, Sligo and Mayo alone.
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said this overcrowding is “so dangerous, it is hard to see how the employer can stand over conditions in any hospital in the country”.
“It is not acceptable that something as ordinary as a bank holiday weekend can result in this level of risk for patients and staff,” she continued.
She said this demonstrates a “total failure in planning and a total disregard for safety”.
Ní Sheaghdha said their members are “stretched to the limit” and “caring for too many patients in understaffed wards”.
“This dangerous situation is happening in the context of cessation of recruitment and nurse managers being prevented from filling vacant posts.”
They’re calling for all vacant posts to be filled “as a matter of urgency, and that recruitment and staff planning move to the top of the HSE’s agenda”.
University Hospital Limerick currently has the most patients on trolleys with 108 people being treated without a bed.
Letterkenny University Hospital has 62 patients without a bed, while St Vincent’s University Hospital has 58.
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