y Bernie Englishbernie@limerickpost.ie
UNIVERSITY Hospital Limerick (UHL) in Dooradoyle had the second highest number of people waiting for a bed on trolleys outside Dublin throughout the month of February.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) recorded 709 patients on trolleys at UHL in February this year, compared to 534 for the same month last year and 329 in February 2013.
However this increase was in part due to the fact that until 2014, only those patients waiting in the Emergency Department were recorded. Patients who were ill enough to be admitted but were waiting in temporary beds as there were no medical beds available were only included in the figures since last year.
The next highest figure outside Dublin was recorded in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where there were 715 patients waiting in February.
In Dublin, the highest figure was for Beaumont hospital where 769 people waited for admission on trolleys in the month of February
Commenting on the figures, the INMO said that following its comparative analysis for the month of February it found that 9,657 patients were on trolleys at hospitals all over the country following admission to hospital.
“This represents the highest ever recorded figure for patients on trolleys in the month of February and it also represents a 33 per cent increase on the figures for 2014”.
The INMO said that the year on year comparison also shows “the extent by which the overcrowding situation has significantly deteriorated, as compared to previous years, and why urgent, radical and sustained action is necessary to address this crisis”.
