Cork hospitals expected to have ‘difficult winter’, figures suggest

An unprecedentedly high trolley number in Cork hospitals for July suggests that healthcare staff are going to have a very difficult winter, a Cork INMO representative has warned.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, 1,341 people were treated on a trolley, chair, or other inappropriate bed space in Cork hospitals in July.

Cork University Hospital was the third-most overcrowded hospital in Ireland, with 999 patients treated on trolleys last month, just behind University Hospital Galway with 1,025, while 2,255 patients were treated on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick.

CUH saw an almost 70% rise in patients sick enough to be admitted to hospital but without a bed available to them compared to July 2023, when there were 591 patients on trolleys.

There were a further 289 admitted patients on trolleys in the Mercy University Hospital in July and 61 in Bantry General Hospital in the last month, both higher than the previous year.

Cork’s total of 1,349 patients on trolleys is a 56% increase from July 2023, and an increase of 170% compared to 2006, when INMO began counting trolleys.

Nationally, more than 9,755 people, including 73 children, were on trolleys during the month, the worst July that the INMO has seen for hospital overcrowding since 2006.

INMO assistant director of industrial relations, Cork’s Colm Porter told The Echo that the numbers were concerning, saying “unfortunately, the INMO’s trolley figures have been a pretty good predictor of what it’s going to be like in the winter”.

“The figures are particularly high for this time of year,” he said.

“They’re figures that, in years gone by, you would see in the winter, now we are getting those high numbers in the summer months when, logic would dictate, they should be lower.

“Ultimately it means that our members working in hospitals across Cork are experiencing winter pressure all year round, and it’s only going to get worse as it gets colder. If you were to follow the trajectory of INMO trolley figures, the higher they are in summer, the higher you can expect them to be in winter.”

He said that despite the HSE announcing the lifting of the recruitment ban, it was still unclear how many staff would be hired under the newly introduced strategy which sees recruitment ceilings for each area based on the level of staff in December 2023, when the embargo was already in place.