Nationally, just six hospitals recorded no patients without a bed this morning. File picture: iStock
The number of patients waiting on trolleys in Irish hospitals has reached its highest total since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
New figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) show there are 534 patients without beds in hospitals across the country this morning, 19 higher than the 515 reported in early November.
University Hospital, Limerick (UHL) had 79 patients on trolleys — the highest total of any hospital in the country.
Fifty of those waiting at UHL were in the emergency department, and 29 were waiting on other wards.
Letterkenny University Hospital in Donegal registered the next highest total, with 11 waiting in its ED and 50 elsewhere in the hospital.
Forty-six patients were waiting in Sligo University Hospital — 28 in ED and 18 on other wards.
All of the 36 patients on trolleys at Cork University Hospital (CUH) this morning were waiting in the emergency department.
Nationally, just six hospitals recorded no patients without a bed: Beaumont Hospital; Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown; the National Children’s Hospital in Tallaght; Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Ennis; Nenagh General Hospital, and Our Lady’s Hospital in Cavan.
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said this morning's figures were a "nightmare before Christmas scenario" and called for urgent mitigation measures to address the issue.
The warning signs that trolleys would go over five hundred once again have been very obvious. This is a predictable event.
“Overcrowded hospitals reduce the ability to deliver safe care," Ms Ní Sheaghdha said.
"With this pandemic it is even more important that the HSE take all necessary steps to avoid the overcrowded wards and emergency departments becoming the source of infection."
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said the INMO was once again calling for a fully-funded workforce plan, with adequate health and safety measures including enhanced ventilation in our hospitals.
She said that "decisive action" and bespoke plans to tackle overcrowding, particularly in hospitals with persistent overcrowding, was sorely needed.
She also urged the HSE to "seek full utilisation of private hospitals".
"The public service is under too much pressure to be expected to shoulder the entire burden of the pandemic alongside rising numbers of patients presenting at emergency departments," she said.
“Our members are mentally and physically exhausted.
"They cannot head into yet another pandemic winter with trolley numbers out of control while the pandemic continues," she added.
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