Nurses say 10,500 people requiring admission waited for bed in February

Nearly 10,500 people deemed to require admission to hospitals had to wait on trolleys in emergency departments or on wards at some stage during February, nurses have said.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said on Monday the number of people on trolleys in hospitals in February was 23 per cent higher than the figure recorded in the same month last year.

The INMO said the hospitals worst affected by overcrowding in February 2020 included University Hospital Limerick where 1,286patients had to wait on trolleys or wards for a bed, Cork University Hospital: 1,031; University Hospital Galway: 805; South Tipperary General Hospital: 653 and St Vincent’s University Hospital: 535.

INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said the "long-running trolley crisis has to be priority number one in the government talks".

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She said “ 10,000 people have been lining the corridors and waiting rooms of Ireland’s hospitals in February”

“Our members are forced to provide care in appalling conditions.”

“Meanwhile qualified healthcare staff are queueing up to work, but hospitals are unable to hire them.

“We have asked the health spokespeople of all the major parties to lift the recruitment embargo, and whatever the make-up of the next government we will insist that these obstacles to safe staffing are removed immediately.”

The nurses’ trade union said there were 488 admitted patients waiting for bedsin hospitals acrossthe country on Monday morning.

The INMO said there were 59 patients on trolleys in the emergency department or on wards waiting for a bed at University Hospital Limerick and 50 patients at Cork University Hospital.