UHG is the third most overcrowded hospital in Ireland for the second day in a row with 35 people on trolleys according to the INMO.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s daily Trolley/Ward Watch says that there are 620 people on trolleys in public hospitals today.
Cork University Hospital tops the list today with a staggering 73 patients without a proper bed.
It’s followed by University Hospital Limerick with 63 on trolleys, with UHG and Mayo University Hospital tied for third place at 35.
Back in Galway Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe is still dealing with higher than normal levels of crowding. Today it is dealing with 18 patients without a proper bed.
End of year figures from the INMO show that there were almost 10,000 hospital patients in Galway deprived of a proper bed last year, with 7,998 at UHG and another 1,503 at Portiuncula.
General Secretary of the INMO Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that overcrowding is no longer a winter issue, but a year round crisis which gets worse in winter.
“Things are getting worse, not better. These figures should be falling, but we’re going the wrong direction,” she said.
“2019 saw thousands more patients without proper beds – often at one of the most vulnerable points in their lives.”
The only way to combat this, she suggested, is by tackling the understaffing issue in hospitals by ending the HSE’s hiring freeze.
