Nurses insist the level of overcrowding at the region’s main hospital must be considered a major incident.
It comes as the INMO’s latest monthly analysis shows the number of admitted patients left waiting for beds at University Hospital Limerick this month was more than double the next busiest facility.
2,172 admitted patients were left waiting on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick across the past five weeks, according to the INMO, representing a 3% reduction on July last year.
The Dooradoyle facility was by far the busiest in the country, however, with 919 recorded on trolleys at University Hospital Galway this month and 800 at St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny.
At Ennis Hospital, trolley numbers also reduced, from 59 in July 2025 to 54 this month.
The INMO says we’re now heading into a summer bank holiday weekend where University Hospital Limerick has advised people to “seek other care pathways, rather than attend their local emergency department”.
The union says the fact that this type of announcement is being made in the middle of summer is a “huge red flag warning for what’s to come in winter”.
The INMO is calling on the HSE to ensure senior decision makers are on site over the weekend and well into the coming weeks, to deploy all resources necessary, and act as it would in a major incident.
