'Bleak winter ahead': Stark warning for Cork as 1271 waited on trolleys in August

A Cork Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) rep has warned of a “bleak winter ahead” if nothing is done to tackle overcrowding in Cork’s hospitals, as latest figures show that almost 1,300 patients were left on trolleys in Cork in August.

The INMO revealed on Wednesday that a record-breaking 9,603 patients were left without a hospital bed across the country in August, according to their Trolleywatch figures.

This is the third time that the monthly record has been broken this year.

More than one in eight patients waiting on trolleys in August were in Cork, as 1,271 people found themselves waiting on a hospital trolley for a bed.

Cork University Hospital (CUH) was ranked as the third most overcrowded hospital in the country, behind University Hospital Galway and University Hospital Limerick (UHL), as 919 patients were left in trolleys in CUH in August.

In the Mercy University Hospital, 345 people were without a bed this month, while in Bantry General Hospital there were seven recorded instances where a patient was left on a trolley.

Colm Porter, INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations in the Southern Region, said that these “winter-like figures in the height of summer… should not be treated as normal”.

“We would be very concerned about what this would mean for the winter,” he said. 

“The INMO want to see the HSE and hospitals in Cork look into their winter plans now, about how they’re going to handle a potentially bleak winter if action isn’t taken.”

Mr Porter said that nurses in Cork hospitals are “burnt out” and “overworked”, not just in emergency departments, but across all areas of the county’s overcrowded hospitals, and are finding it “quite challenging” to provide safe patient care in the environment and circumstances they are working in.

Speaking on the August figures, INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha commended steps taken in UHL to reduce overcrowding, as the hospital has moved away from the top spot in the overcrowding rankings for the first time since September 2021.

UHL was recently the subject of a Hiqa inspection, and the subsequent report led to improvement of operational processes, which Ms Ní Sheaghdha said has shown “significant results”.

“What has been implemented in University Hospital Limerick in the last six weeks must be replicated in other hospitals with chronic overcrowding problems,” she said.

Mr Porter agreed that similar tailored plans for Cork’s hospitals could help to reduce overcrowding, particularly in CUH which currently sits just below UHL in the INMO’s overcrowding rankings.

“We do appreciate that CUH management are taking it seriously... but when there was the HIQA inspection in UHL, and there was a plan put in place, it would appear from the August figures that it is having some kind of an impact. 

The INMO is calling for these hospital by hospital plans put in place right across the board, including in CUH, that will seek to bring down the levels of patients waiting in trolleys,” he said.