Over 9,600 patients left without hospital beds this September

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has revealed the alarming number of patients in hospitals that were left without beds during the month of September. 

It was confirmed that over 9,635 patients have been treated in hospital without a bed this month, according to INMO. 

More than three thousand patients were treated on trolleys in the three most overcrowded hospitals alone.

After discovering these figures, the INMO are calling for an immediate end to all recruitment caps. 

The organisation is also appealing for the urgent implementation of the government’s safe staffing framework which will help to manage the current increase in hospital overcrowding.  

It has been revealed that the most overcrowded hospitals in Ireland in September were, University Hospital Limerick (1,735), Cork University Hospital (1,263), Galway University Hospital (959), Sligo University Hospital (736) and St Vincent’s University Hospital (556).

The deputy general secretary of INMO, Dr Edwards Mathews, spoke about the figures to explain, “We are now heading into the hardest period of the year without enough staff to safely care for patients, and the number of people who will be treated on trolleys will continue to grow over the coming months”.

“Our members are extremely discouraged to be heading into another winter period without safe staffing levels, and with a HSE strategy in place to prevent recruitment into vacant positions”.

Dr Mathews added, “Additional bed capacity must be prioritised and all obstacles to recruiting nurses and midwives need to be removed urgently. Continuing to obstruct safe staffing in this way is simply irresponsible, and will without a doubt lead to worse outcomes for patients this winter”.