The level of overcrowding at the region’s main hospital reduced by 7% over the past month.
The latest analysis from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation shows, however, that University Hospital Limerick remained the busiest hospital in the country in October.
1,742 admitted patients were left waiting for a bed at UHL over the course of this month, according to figures compiled by nurses’ union, the INMO.
It represents a decrease of 134, or 7%, on the same month in 2024, and a 14% drop compared to 2023, when trolley numbers peaked.
It comes following the opening of the first of three planned 96-bed blocks at University Hospital Limerick earlier this month, which has increased inpatient bed capacity in real terms there by 71.
Once again, Cork and Galway University Hospitals followed close behind, with 1,017 and 916 respectively left waiting on trolleys or chairs at those facilities over the past four weeks.
1,842 admitted patients were left without a bed at the ten hospitals serving the East of the country combined, which is only 100 more than University Hospital Limerick alone.
There was a dramatic decrease in trolley numbers at Ennis General Hospital, meanwhile, from 152 in October 2024, to 33 this past month.
