The INMO is warning of a dangerous winter ahead, following record trolley numbers in the past month.
University Hospital Limerick recorded the highest level of overcrowding in the country in August, once again, with a 23% increase in trolley numbers, compared to the same period last year.
Ennis General Hospital recorded a jump of 17, as Clare FM’s Fiona Cahill reports.
There were 1,197 patients left waiting on trolleys at the region’s main hospital last month, according to the latest figures from the Irish Nurses and midwives Organisation.
It’s the highest ever figure recorded at the Dooradoyle facility in the month of August, and represents a 23% increase on the same period last year.
It’s also a 161% jump on the same month, only five years ago.
Nurses at Ennis General Hospital, meanwhile, recorded 17 patients on trolleys over the course of the four and a half weeks, compared to none in August last year, and none again in August 2017.
Nationally, there were 9,562 patients, including 48 children, left waiting for beds in hospitals across August.
The INMO has described this as the tragic, ongoing reality in Ireland’s health service, and that because this is a summer month, it signals an even more dangerous winter, when extra demands are typically placed on hospitals.
The union insists that staffing is at the core of the problem, with 1,300 nursing and midwifery vacancies across the country.
