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There are more than 70 people on trolleys or without a bed in Galway’s hospitals today, as the INMO is calling for the government to treat hospital overcrowding as a crisis.
At University Hospital Galway there were 51 patients waiting for a bed today, with 34 on trolleys in the Emergency Department, and a further 17 in the wards.
At Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe there are a further 24 patients without a bed, nine of them in the ED and 15 in the wards.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that the government should stop just telling people to avoid hospitals, and focus on providing emergency supports until the end of February.
“It is time for the Government to call this what it clearly is – an out and out crisis. A crisis warrants an extraordinary response from Government and the HSE.”
Nationwide there are 838 patients in Irish hospitals without a bed today, INMO figures show.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that nurses and other frontline staff are often the ones left apologising to patients and their families on behalf of the state for chaotic conditions.
The INMO is calling for the cessation of all non-urgent medical activity, along with a time limited mask mandate.
“Our members are treating patients in the most undignified conditions. This is not the type of care they should be providing in a country that has the resources to provide additional capacity and support.”
“Nurses and other healthcare staff cannot continue to weather this storm without adequate support and protection from their employer”.
She warned that working conditions like these will result in more staff wanting to leave the health service, something it doesn’t need at this time.
