Cork hospital trolley figures high ahead of bank holiday weekend

AHEAD of the bank holiday weekend, trolley figures in Cork showed no sign of reducing.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), there were 75 people on trolleys in hospitals across Cork yesterday morning.

It comes as the Cork Kerry Community Healthcare and South South West Hospital groups warned earlier this week “emergency departments are often busier around bank holiday weekends”.

“All patients will always be seen and treated, with the most urgent patients prioritised. This means that patients with non-urgent injuries may face longer waiting times and these patients may get the treatment they need faster at an injury unit.”

CUH had the second highest trolley number in the country with 64 patients on trolleys, just three behind University Hospital Limerick.

There were also five people on trolleys in Bantry General Hospital and six in the Mercy University Hospital.

It comes as the INMO revealed that 1,415 people were on a trolley in a Cork hospital over the month of April, with 1,096 patients on trolleys in CUH, 49 in Bantry, and 270 in The Mercy.

INMO assistant director of industrial relations, Colm Porter, told The Echo that it was “a worrying trend” that figures were still so high outside what would generally be considered peak times during the winter months.

Professor Conor Deasy, who is a professor in emergency medicine at both CUH and University College Cork, said “what we expect to happen today is that a lot of patients will be discharged from the hospital” ahead of the long weekend.