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Overcrowding at University Hospital Galway has topped the list of Irish hospitals today with 52 people waiting on trolleys.
According to today’s figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation there are 28 people on trolleys at the A&E in UHG and a further 24 patients on trolleys in overcrowded wards.
That puts UHG well ahead of the next most crowded hospitals today, University Hospital Limerick (43) and Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore (35).
This year, for the first time since record keeping began, the number of patients on trolleys at Irish hospitals climbed past 100,000, with weeks still to go in the year.
Overall, this November just gone was the worst one in history with 676 patients at UHG going without beds out of nearly 10,000 nationwide.
The INMO began Trolley Watch in late 2004 to count patients left without beds in Emergency Departments, and added Ward Watch in 2013.
Ward Watch is a count of the additional patients on trolleys, chairs, or beds in wards beyond their intended capacity.
General Secretary of the INMO Phil Ní Sheaghdha said, “Behind each number is a vulnerable patient suffering in poor conditions, with overworked staff pulling out all the stops to provide the best possible care.”
According to her, hospital staff are looking to the new year with “dread” as the winter crisis always reaches its peak in January and February.
