Fifty-seven people are stuck waiting on trolleys this morning at University Hospital Galway – the worst-hit hospital in the state today.
According to figures released by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, 518 patients are currently waiting for care across Ireland.
This comes just after Galway’s main hospital had 46 patients without beds yesterday.
UHG is consistently listed as one of the most crowded hospitals in the country.
The INMO note that these figures are becoming “business as usual” for the HSE, Ireland’s health service.
They have said that although the extra funding for the health service announced in yesterday’s budget is “welcome” and “much needed”, there is still no provision for an across-the-board pay rise for nurses and midwives.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said:
“With over 500 patients waiting on trolleys today, the health service is unable to cope. Years of underinvestment have taken their toll, so today’s extra funding is welcome and much needed. We will seek to meet with the HSE to ensure that their service plan provides for additional nurses and midwives.
“However, without a resolution to the recruitment and retention crisis, problems in the health service will continue.
“The HSE simply cannot hire enough on these pay levels and the exodus of Ireland’s highly trained nurses and midwives will continue.”
More than 200 nursing jobs are badly needed in the state.
And with winter rapidly approaching, the number of patients without beds is expected to hit record highs.
Protests were held in multiple cities last month over funding, staffing, and overcrowding issues in Irish hospitals.
After a near-unanimous rejection of government pay proposals in late September, it seems that a nurses’ strike could take place later this autumn.
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