Almost 11,000 treated on trolleys in Cork University Hospital this year

More than 10,900 patients have been treated in Cork University Hospital (CUH) without a bed this year — almost 11% of the total trolley figure for the country.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), 100,111 patients have been treated at hospitals nationwide without a bed so far in 2024.

The most overcrowded hospital has been University Hospital Limerick, where 18,944 patients have been treated on trolleys, followed by CUH.

Some 2,503 patients were treated without a bed at the Mercy University Hospital and 731 at Bantry General Hospital.

The latest figures come at a time when the INMO is raising concerns over what it describes as “obstacles to recruitment” laid out in the HSE’s 2024 pay-and-numbers strategy.

The INMO has joined other unions in hospital protests over the past month to highlight the issue and is also balloting its members in relation to potential industrial action.

The union claims that the strategy’s “suppression of all posts that were vacant at the end of 2023” has led to the elimination of around 2,000 nursing and midwifery posts.

INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said the latest figure comes “as no surprise”.

Ms Ní Sheaghdha added: 

“Our members have been pushed to the brink over the last five years and, for many of them, seeing another annual report of 100,000 patients being treated in inappropriate spaces, before we even reach November, is simply unacceptable.”

Just two weeks ago, the INMO reported a record-breaking trolley number for the hospital, with 98 patients on trolleys in CUH on Tuesday, October 8.

Following this, trolley figures had dropped to the late 20s, but have risen to more than 40 every day this week, with 48 patients on trolleys yesterday morning.

Labour Party general election candidate for Cork South Central, Laura Harmon, said recent trolley figures give us a glimpse of what winter has in store, “when we know hospitals across the country will struggle to cope with the surge experienced this time of year”.