Fifty-four people are on trolleys in Galway’s public hospitals today, according to the latest figures by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
University Hospital Galway has 43 patients waiting for a bed and Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe has a further 11 people on trolleys this morning.
Only University Hospital Limerick has worse overcrowding today with 67 patients on trolleys, while Letterkenny University Hospital and Cork University Hospital also have 43 people waiting for a bed.
Speaking yesterday, INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that there has been no let-up in pressure in hospitals across the country.
“With nearly 1,400 COVID cases in our hospitals as well as the huge levels of overcrowding, it is not acceptable to our members that there has not been direct intervention from government to alleviate this problem,” she said.
“Our members have been sounding the alarm to Government every day about the chronic overcrowding. The situation we now find ourselves in deserves immediate political intervention.
“It is not good enough for members of Government to comment on the situation our members find themselves in, we need to see direct action that will ease the pressure starting with the curtailing of non-emergency elective activity.
“Overcrowding adds stress for staff and worsens patient care. It is high-risk in normal times, but even more so during a pandemic.”
