There have been almost 10,000 patients on trolleys in Galway’s hospitals so far this year.
University Hospital Galway has been the third most overcrowded this year to date, with 7,453 patients spending time on trolleys.
At Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe there have been almost 2,300 more patients without available for them.
Nationwide, there have been over 101,000 patients admitted to hospital without a bed so far this year, including 582 today, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that the union’s Executive Council met yesterday and, “reinforced the position that safe staffing underpinned by legislation is urgently required in order to protect patients no matter where they are in the system.”
She said that the INMO will be undertaking a process of engagement with its members, to ensure that any efforts to compel them to deviate from safe practices are resisted.
Today alone UHG was the second most overcrowded hospital in the country, with 57 patients on trolleys, and another eight were without beds at Portiuncula.
“Behind the trolley figures that the INMO publishes every day are extremely vulnerable patients being treated in undignified and dangerous conditions.”
“Over 100,000 people have gone without a bed this year and it isn’t even the end of October, this was entirely predictable.”
“It is shocking that the necessary measures have not been taken by the HSE and individual hospital groups to alleviate this level of overcrowding.”
