Hospital overcrowding: 459 patients waiting for beds

James Cox

A total of 459 patients are waiting for beds in Irish hospitals according to the latest Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Trolley Watch figures.

This includes 345 patients waiting in the emergency department, while 114 are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.

The most overcrowded hospital by some distance is University Hospital Limerick (UHL) where there are 106 patients waiting for beds.

UHL is followed by Sligo University Hospital (57 patients), Cork University Hospital (CUH, 49 patients), Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda (24 patients) and St James's Hospital (23 patients).

When it comes to hospitals with patients waiting for beds in emergency departments, UHL is again the most overcrowded with 48 patients; followed by CUH (42 patients), and Sligo University Hospital (33 patients).