Hospital overcrowding is now out of control, nurses have claimed as new figures show nearly 600 patients are waiting on trolleys or on wards for admission to a hospital bed on Wednesday.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said there were 1,718 patients deemed to require admission by doctors waiting on trolleys or on wards in the first three days of this week.
It said in the same period last year there were 46 per cent fewer people on trolleys waiting for a bed.
Figures released by the INMO on Wednesday said there were 64 patients on trolleys in the emergency department or on wards waiting for admission to a bed at Cork University Hospital.
It said in University Hospital Galway there were 58 patients waiting for a bed and 50 at University Hospital Limerick.
In Dublin, the largest number of people waiting for admission to a bed was at Tallaght Hospital where there were 36 patients on trolleys or on wards on Wednesday according to the INMO.
The nurses’union said there were four children on trolleys at Temple St Hospital in Dublin waiting for a bed.
INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said the new trolley figures confirmed that hospital could not cope.
“The system is unable to manage patient flow and the burden is falling on nursing and medical staff who are forced to work in intolerable conditions. Staff are constantly apologising to patients for the inhumane conditions in which they are forced to care for them and they cannot see any reprieve as we leave the winter period. We are now in the second week of April and the figures are getting higher. “
“It is time for the Government as a whole to recognise that the health service is in crisis and requires immediate emergency intervention. These numbers are the equivalent of three whole hospitals of patients for whom there are no beds. This is a national emergency inflicting indignity and unnecessary suffering on patients and subjecting nursing and medical and other staff to extraordinary health and safety risks. “
The INMO called on the Government to apply a protocol in place for dealing with any emergency to be applied immediately
“This should include utilisation of the private sector, cancellations of all elective day and inpatient procedures and concentration on de-escalation procedures. There must be an immediate focus on realistic recruitment and retention measures for nursing staff to prevent this situation continuing to deteriorate.”
