Nurses say over 300,000 people have been treated on a trolley, chair or other inappropriate bed space at hospitals serving Clare’s population in the last 20 years.
New analysis from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation reveals more than 1.7 million people nationwide have been admitted to hospital without a bed since its records began two decades ago.
The INMO’s report states that 1,766,939 people have went without a bed at hospitals across the country between January 1st 2006 and May 5th 2026.
University Hospital Limerick accounted for 194,541 of these, working out at 11%.
A further 123,098 were at University Hospital Galway while 9,061 were at Ennis Hospital.
This means that across the three facilities, the number of patients admitted without an appropriate bed space stands at 326,700, making up 18% of the figure for the entire country.
The data also shows that of those admitted to hospitals nationwide without an adequate bed space, 14,990 were under the age of 16.
