THERE were almost 19,000 admitted patients treated on trolleys in the emergency department of University Hospital Limerick (UHL) so far this year.
That’s according to figures released this Thursday (October 24) by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
According to the INMO Trolley Watch count, which is taken on weekday mornings, there were 18,944 patients waiting for a bed in the emergency department at UHL or in overflow wards so far this year.
The numbers are on the way to being as stark as last year, when there were 21,445 people on trolleys between January and December.
The next highest overcrowding figure released today by the INMO was for Cork University Hospital, where there were 10,923 people waiting for an in-hospital bed between January and today.
100,111 patients nationwide have been treated in hospital without a bed so far in 2024 – around one in four of them in Limerick.
The figures were released following the INMO joining other unions in hospital protests over the past month, calling for an end to what they say are “obstacles to recruitment laid out in the HSE’s 2024 Pay and Numbers Strategy”.
The INMO has also begun a ballot of its members in relation to potential industrial action in response to their grievances over recruitment.
The INMO said in a statement that “the strategy’s suppression of all posts that were vacant at the end of 2023 has led to the elimination of around 2,000 much-needed nursing and midwifery posts, and this is seriously affecting care standards and overcrowding across the health service”.
