UHG has retained its frequent pole position as the second most overcrowded hospital in Ireland today.
There are currently 44 patients waiting on trolleys at UHG according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s Trolley/Ward Watch.
The INMO keeps a daily count of the number of patients without a proper bed in Emergency Departments and overpacked wards in public hospitals.
University Hospital Limerick is unchallenged as by far the worst affected hospital in the country with 67 people waiting on trolleys today.
Back in Galway there are three patients without a bed at Portiuncula University Hospital out of a total of 485 at hospitals nationwide today.
The staffing problem across the Saolta Group, which include UHG and Portiuncula, has become severe enough that the INMO has warned that services will need to be curtailed for safety’s sake.
The union has warned that high levels of missed or delayed care and poor patient outcomes should be gravely concerning to Saolta officials.
“Our frontline members tell us that day staffing levels now resemble the night shift,” said Anne Burke, INMO officer for Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon.
“We provided management with specific examples of missed care and impacts on patients, but services have still not been curtailed to ensure safe staffing.”
There are currently 64 nursing vacancies at UHG alone the INMO says, with not enough student nurses being retained when they graduate.
