There are 126 patients waiting on trolleys and in beds in wards at University hospital Limerick today - the highest number ever recorded in the past sixteen years since the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation began its Trolley Watch list in 2006.

There are 65 patients on trolleys in the emergency department and a further 61 on wards elsewhere in the hospital - far exceeding the next highest total of 40 at St Luke's in Kilkenny and far in excess of any of the main Dublin emergency hospitals, the highest of which is 19 patients waiting at St James'.

The INMO have described the environment at the hospital as dangerous for patients and staff, and a chaotic situation for the people of the Mid West who rely on it as their regional acute hospital.

Todays record figures are the latest in a long list of times when University hospital Limerick has topped the trolley watch list for high volumes of patients waiting for a bed, surpassing the record of 100 in March and February.

The hospital opened a €24 million state of the art emergency department in 2017, over three times the size of the emergency department it replaced, with 50 individual bed units designed to improve isolation facilities and increase patient flow through the hospital.

In addition a 60 bed modular unit was opened last year also designed to increase capacity at the hospital, but neither of these improvements have delivered a reduction in pressure at the emergency department, which is one of the busiest in the country seeing a throughput of over 65,000 patients a year.

INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations Mary Fogarty said the record number of patients on trolleys at Limerick University hospital means the bed management system there is completely broken, and has been allowed to fester for far too long.

"The INMO has been sounding the alarm on issues within UHL for years," she said.

"We need to see the emergency plan activated for the hospital today and a public announcement of same.

"Hospital management need to urgently stop admitting patients for elective care as there are no beds within the hospital which is completely congested."

She said it is leading to significant stress and burn out for staff because of their inability to provide inappropriate care to all admitted patients, and they are also dealing with public dissatisfaction and impatience.

"Senior HSE management and Minister Donnelly need to urgently act on what is a chaotic situation for the people of the Mid West," Ms Fogarty added.

"The complete mismanagement is unacceptable and is having real consequences on the health outcomes of patients.

"Private hospitals need to be urgently engaged by the HSE to address the waiting times, and St. Johns hospital in the city needs an urgent expansion to be able to provide high level surgery."

The number of patients on trolleys in UHL today make up over 28% of the number of patients on trolleys across the country, which totals 442 patients.

The University of Limerick hospital group was asked for a response to the INMO's call for their emergency plan to be activated.

Responding this afternoon UL hospital group said that the hospital remains under severe pressure as a result of sustained high demand at its Emergency Department.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week a total of 273 and 259 patients attended compared to the average 209 daily attendances during 2021, its busiest year on record.

At 8am this morning there were a total of 85 admitted patients waiting for a bed outside of designated bed areas.

This included patients in the emergency department, medical and surgical assessment units and on the wards.

A spokesperson said: "There were not 126 patients waiting on trolleys at UHL today. However the numbers waiting for a bed remain far too high, resulting in poor patient experiences.

"Elective activity is reviewed daily in line with our escalation plan, based on capacity and on the clinical need of patients, including elective patients coming in for time-critical investigations and procedures."

The hospital has confirmed that they have have now raised their level of escalation at UHL and this will result in cancellations in scheduled care.

It said the need to balance emergency presentations with the needs of these time-critical elective patients and the current challenge at UHL only underlines the importance of providing an elective only hospital in the mid-west.

Patients whose appointments or procedures at UHL are being cancelled will be contacted directly by hospital staff and will be rescheduled as soon as possible

The group has apologised to all patients affected.

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