More than 400 patients awaiting bed at CUH in eight days

More than 400 people have been left waiting for beds at a Cork hospital in the past eight days, it has been revealed.

The latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) revealed that 62 patients were left on trolleys or in wards at CUH on Monday, followed by 63 on Tuesday and 48 yesterday. Last Monday, this figure stood at 36 patients and rose to 61 last Thursday and 57 last Friday.

CUH saw a total of 781 patients awaiting beds for the whole of September last year - the hospital has experienced more than half of that in just eight days this year.

More than 1,000 patients have been left waiting for a bed in CUH for the past two months in a row.

Nurses in Cork recently sought an urgent response from hospital management in the region after they raised concerns about the unsafe and intolerable conditions at Cork University Hospital.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has written to the management of the South/South West Hospital Group to call for budget and staffing restrictions to be lifted amid “intolerable” conditions at CUH.

The union has also requested urgent action on bed capacity in the hospital.

The INMO recently threatened possible industrial action in the region unless issues at CUH are addressed.

Conditions for both patients and staff at CUH have been described as “intolerable and unsafe” in recent weeks amid record overcrowding and capacity concerns.

The INMO has sought engagement with HSE management to discuss the issues and has warned it could curtail services unless urgent action is taken to address issues at Cork University Hospital and across services in the region.

The INMO went on strike in January this year with thousands of patients impacted as services experienced widespread disruption.

The union said Cork health services have been plunged into a crisis due to record overcrowding, hundreds of vacant frontline positions including in nursing and chronic recruitment and retention issues.