'A national disgrace': More than 17,000 patients were admitted to Cork hospitals with no bed last year

A Cork TD has said the fact that 17,190 patients were admitted to Cork hospitals without a bed in 2024 is a national disgrace.

That figure is contained in the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) annual report of TrolleyWatch. It also shows that Cork’s largest hospital recorded a 5% annual increase in patients on trolleys.

The INMO figures show a very slight, 2%, decrease on 2023, when 17,601 patients were on trolleys in Cork hospitals. Of the three hospitals covered in the figures, Cork University Hospital (CUH) saw 13,162 admitted without beds in 2024, marking a 5% increase on 2023, when 12,582 patients were on trolleys.

The Mercy University Hospital (MUH) had 3,219 patients on trolleys in 2024, an 18% decrease on 2023’s figure of 3,936.

Bantry Hospital had 809 patients admitted without a bed in 2024, a decrease of 25% on the 1,083 patients admitted without a bed in 2023.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central, said the figures represented an utter failure by the outgoing government. “We should never allow this to become acceptable or normalised,” he said.

“Patients on trolleys is not good for the dignity and well-being of patients, and patients on trolleys on this scale puts our already overstretched staff under immense pressure. And ultimately it compromises quality of care, despite everyone’s best efforts.”

'PEOPLE OF CORK DESERVE BETTER'

Mr Ó Laoghaire said the HSE continues to be restricted by a recruitment embargo “in all but name” because of what he called “the Government’s deliberate decision to underfund the health service”.

“The people of Cork deserve better than that. Our health professionals need better than that,” he said.

“Any new government needs to fund the health service properly to ensure patients in Cork get the high-quality, timely health care they need when they need it.”

Compared with the TrolleyWatch figures for 2014, the three Cork hospitals saw numbers of people on trolleys almost trebling over 10 years from 5,917 to 17,190, or an increase of 191%.

In 2014, CUH had 3,574 patients on trolleys, with the 2024 figure of 13,162 representing a 268% increase.

MUH had 2,196 patients admitted without beds in 2014 — with the 2024 figure of 3,219 representing an increase of 47%.

Bantry Hospital had 147 patients on trolleys in 2014, and 809 in 2024, marking a 450% increase.

Phil Ní Sheaghdha, INMO general secretary, said nurses, midwives, and other healthcare professionals should not have to bear the brunt of public anger due to poor planning and lack of capacity in the health service year in, year out.

“The next government now has an opportunity to drastically improve the chronic overcrowding issues in hospitals right across the country,” she said. 

“Staffing hospitals and scaling up capacity properly need to be at the top of the list of priorities for the new government.”

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said that because of the high rate of hospital admissions of influenza and other respiratory illnesses, INMO members were currently working in very difficult circumstances.

“The number of patients being treated on trolleys both in our emergency departments and on wards will have implications for infection control,” she said.

“Placing trolleys on ward corridors where there are no windows or proper air flow systems render the areas unsafe for staff and patients.”

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said the HSE needed to outline what steps it was planning to take over the coming days to radically reduce the number of patients on trolleys while respiratory illnesses are rampant.