University Hospital Limerick ties overcrowding record

University Hospital Limerick has equalled the record for overcrowding in a single hospital, with 58 patients waiting for admission from its emergency department on Monday morning.

This included 42 patients on trolleys and another 16 waiting in the ward while beds were being sought for them, according to the daily TrolleyCount by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

The hospital has had the worst record in the country for overcrowding in recent weeks, but Monday’s total represents a sharp increase on the 46 recorded in the department on Friday.

There are almost as many patients on trolleys in Limerick as there are in all seven emergency departments in Dublin.

Overcrowding in hospitals in the capital has eased considerably in recent months and on Monday, Beaumont Hospital recorded the remarkable feat of having no patients on trolleys. The performance of the hospital has improved sharply since Ian Carter, head of the RCSI Hospital Group, took on the additional responsibility as interim chief executive of Beaumont in June.

Nationally, 364 patients were waiting for admission to hospital on Monday morning. After Limerick, University Hospital Galway had the worst overcrowding, with 31 patients on trolleys.

The peak in overcrowding in Limerick is the highest seen since October 2011, when 58 patients were on trolleys in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda on one particular day.

Last month, a man in his 60s spent 52 hours on a trolley in the hospital’s emergency department.

A new emergency department in Limerick is due to open next spring.