There are more than 30 patients on trolleys at Portiuncula Hospital today, in what continues to be an extremely busy week for the Ballinasloe hospital.
There have been over 30 patients without a bed three days in a row now at Portiuncula, and on Monday there were 29.
This morning there are 21 patients on trolleys in the emergency department, and another 10 in the wards without a bed.
This is an unusually high level of overcrowding for the Ballinasloe Hospital, the fourth highest in the country today.
Over at University Hospital Galway there are 25 patients admitted with no bed available today.
Of those, 20 people are on trolleys in the emergency department according to INMO figures, and another five are in the wards.
Nationwide the INMO has counted 485 people admitted in public hospitals without beds this morning, with UH Limerick alone accounting for 103 of those.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation called for the Emergency Department Taskforce to meet urgently this week as the trolley crisis continues.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that it is unacceptable that we are seeing such high levels of overcrowding before the usual onslaught of winter viruses and respiratory illnesses.
“We haven’t yet reached the midpoint of the month and we have already seen over 3,335 patients on trolleys, chairs or other inappropriate bed spaces so far in September,” she said.
She added that the rising number of children under the age of 16 who are on trolleys in hospital is particularly concerning.
