607 people waiting for hospitals beds across the country

Kenneth Fox

There are a total of 607 patients waiting for beds this morning, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation's (INMO) Trolley Watch.

502 patients are waiting in the emergency department, while 105 are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.

The most overcrowded hospital is Cork University Hospital with 65 people waiting for beds followed by University Hospital Limerick with 48 people.

It comes as new data from the HSE show there were 1,689 people hospitalised in Ireland with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) between September and November, more than double the number of cases in the pre-Covid era.

Hospitals across Munster have seen an increase in the number of children and over-65s needing treatment for the virus this winter.

A steep jump in RSV cases saw hospitalisations rise from 129 in September, to 753 in October, before reaching 807 last month.

Between September and November 2019, before Covid arrived, there were just 596 cases in total in Ireland. In fact, there were more cases last month than at the peak of the infection wave during the entire winter of 2019-2020.

Doctors stress that the vast majority of children experience a mild illness, however these figures show that the number of more serious cases is increasing.

The increase seems all the more startling as RSV almost disappeared during the pandemic due to social distancing and lockdowns.

Between September 2020 and February of last year, there were just two RSV patients hospitalised in Ireland; one toddler in October 2020 and one toddler in February 2021.

However, in autumn last year as normal life resumed, viruses returned. By September there were 136 cases, including 127 children under four.

Cases peaked in October at 806 cases, but November was also very high at 747 cases, dropping down sharply to just 286 by December of last year.