The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has warned that chronic overcrowding cannot become the norm once again in the country’s hospitals.
Last month, a total of 8,636 patients were on trolleys at hospitals across the country, 817 of those patients were waiting on a bed at Letterkenny University Hospital.
Letterkenny was the second most overcrowded hospital in the Republic of Ireland last month with 817 patients on a trolley.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha says it’s unacceptable that chronic overcrowding is allowed to continue while COVID is still rampant in many hospitals.
She says while it is only the first month of the year overcrowding records have been broken with the highest levels of January overcrowding since the INMO began Trolleywatch in 2006 seen in a number of hospitals including Letterkenny University Hospital and Sligo University Hospital.
The INMO says members are embarrassed and tired of apologising to patients for the poor standard of care environments.
The INMO is calling for the HSE to request a curtailment of elective surgeries until the end of February as well as bespoke plans for hospitals where chronic overcrowding is a persistent feature of the hospital environment.
