Thousands More Waiting For Beds At Region’s Main Hospital Last Year Than Any Other In The Country

Hospital trolleys

New figures show more than twelve thousand patients were left waiting on trolleys at the region’s main hospital last year.

The latest trolleywatch analysis from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation shows University Hospital Limerick was the most overcrowded in the country once again in 2021.

Overall numbers were down by almost a quarter on the previous year, however.

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The latest figures from the INMO shows the level of overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick jumped by 23% in the space of a year, with 12,108 people left waiting to be admitted across 2021.

The number hasn’t surpassed 2019 figures, however, when the highest ever trolley numbers were recorded at the Dooradoyle facility and the pandemic hadn’t yet took hold.

Last year’s figure is also the highest of any hospital in the country and is in excess of 7,000 more than the next busiest facility; Cork University Hospital.

In December alone, there were 1,106 waiting for beds at UHL, a rise of 12% on the same month last year.

At Ennis General Hospital, meanwhile, trolley numbers were up by 50 in 2021, when compared to the previous year and increased by 2 in the month of December to 4.

Nationally, over 70,000 people were left waiting for beds in hospitals across 2021, which the INMO has branded as an “unacceptable rise in overcrowding, while we know this adds to the spread of COVID-19 in our hospitals”.