More than 7,600 patients were left waiting on trolleys at University Hospital Galway and Portiuncula in Ballinasloe in the first eleven months of this year.
Figures from the Irish Nurses and midwives Organisation – which records the ‘Trolley Watch’ numbers at each public hospital in the country – show that between January and the end of November, there were 6,147 patients on trolleys or chairs in UHG.
That was the third highest figure for any public hospital in the country.
The figure is also up by almost one-sixth (16%) on the same period in 2016, when it stood at 5,309.
Trolley Watch is based on Emergency Department admissions who are left waiting on trolleys and includes ‘Ward Watch’ (those on trolleys or chairs in wards in excess of that ward’s capacity).
Portiuncula Hospital recorded a figure of 1,502 for the same period – up 130% from 653 the previous year.
The highest level of overcrowding in the country for the ten-month period was in University Hospital Limerick at 8,116, followed by Cork University Hospital at 6,320.
Nationally, there were 91,147 patients on trolleys in public hospitals during the eleven-month period.
According to the INMO, the figures show that hospital management are repeatedly making the same mistakes of the past.
“The very significant increase in additional patients on inpatient wards, on trolleys or additional beds is most disturbing and suggests hospital management are increasingly repeating the mistakes of the past.
“Overcrowding wards has never solved the problem, of hospital overcrowding, and this will only be done through additional acute beds.
“It remains the INMO view that placing extra patients, on understaffed inpatient wards, is not an appropriate, or effective, response to the continuing overcrowding crisis.
“Overcrowding wards simply compromises the care of all patients, on that ward, as these wards are already short-staffed resulting in essential patient care being delayed or left undone (missed care). Overcrowded wards are also contrary to best practice and increase the risk of cross infection between patients.”
Meanwhile, the figures for the month of November 2017 show that UHG was the fourth most overcrowded hospital in the country.
There were 539 people admitted for care, but left waiting on trolleys at the hospital in November, compared to just behind University Hospital Limerick which had 878 patients on trolleys; Cork UH at 651 and UH Waterford at 624.
The figures also show that Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe had 79 patients on trolleys in November.
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