The number of patients left waiting on trolleys in Irish hospitals during November jumped by 110% when compared with the same period in 2020, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said.

According to its latest ‘Trolley Watch’ figures, 8,317 patients were left waiting on trolleys during November 2021 compared to 3,934 in November 2020.

The worst affected hospitals during November 2021 were University Hospital Limerick (1,358 on trolleys), Letterkenny University Hospital (1,067) and Cork University Hospital (726).

In response to this, the INMO is calling on public and private healthcare services “to act as one to tackle hospital overcrowding”.

“Yet again, University Hospital Limerick, Letterkenny University Hospital and Cork University Hospital have the highest number of patients on trolleys. This is a consistent problem in these areas. We need to see bespoke plans from management on how they plan to tackle this problem as we enter the winter months,” commented INMO general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha.

She said that there needs to be an increase in capacity and the utilisation of private hospitals.

“We are now at a stage where we need all of our health services, including public and private, to be acting as one. The public service is under too much pressure to be expected to shoulder the entire burden of the pandemic. This is the time for private hospitals to step up and be fully involved with this public health emergency. The need to make profit must be secondary at this time,” Ms Ní Sheaghdha insisted.

She pointed out that nurses and midwives are “mentally and physically exhausted” as they have been working “with no easing of pressure since January 2020”.

“We tend to forget with everything that has happened since Covid first landed on our shores that nurses were already dealing with chronic overcrowding in our hospitals, with over 20,000 people on trolleys in the first two months of 2020.

“There needs to be recognition from the HSE as the employer that the conditions nurses are currently operating in are having an impact on their safety and that of their patients,” Ms Ní Sheaghdha added.