The region’s main hospital recorded the highest ever level of overcrowding of any hospital in the country for the month of November.
The latest trolleywatch analysis from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation shows there was a 17% increase in trolley numbers at University Hospital Limerick this month.
The INMO recorded 1,596 patients on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick across the month of November this year.
That represents a rise of 238 on the same month last year and a 20% rise on pre-pandemic levels.
It’s the highest number ever recorded at the Dooradoyle hospital, or any other hospital in the country during the month of November, since records began almost two decades ago.
There was a marginal increase in the number of patients waiting for beds at Ennis General Hospital this month, meanwhile, with 23 recorded on trolleys, up from 20 in the same period in 2021.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has described this as the worst November on record for hospital overcrowding, with 12,624 patients waiting for beds across the country, 563 of those children.
The union says it’s known that acute problems with hospital overcrowding are being seen in the Midwest and Western Seaboard.
It also says members expect the HSE and the Government to treat this issue as the emergency it is and meet with the INMO to address the issues they’ve raised to maintain safe care this winter.
Nurses say they don’t want to be put in a position where care is compromised due to inaction from Government and the HSE.
