Galway Bay FM Newsroom - Figures released from The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation this morning show that there were 998 patients without a bed in July in University Hospital Galway making it as the third most overcrowded hospital in the country/
Only University Hospital Limerick and Cork University Hospital had more with 1,268 in Limerick and 1,000 in Cork.
St Vincents Hospital in Dublin and Sligo University Hospital made up the top five.
Since May this year almost 30 thousand patients were without a bed and in July that number was over 9 thousand alone.
INMO Director of Professional Services Tony Fitzpatrick said:
“The level of hospital overcrowding we have seen throughout this summer has been a cause of serious concern. Since the beginning of May we have seen 27,832 patients without a bed in Irish hospitals including 9,191 in July. The fact that 95 children under the age of sixteen have been without hospital beds in July should absolutely not be tolerated.
“Unless we see a hospital-by-hospital plan to tackle overcrowding, we are in for a very bleak winter in Irish hospitals which will see nurses and patients in extremely unsafe circumstances.
“We need to heed the warnings from our colleagues in Australia when it comes to mitigating the impact of both flu and COVID in Irish hospitals over the coming months. We cannot afford to have a COVID and flu ‘twindemic’ in Irish hospitals this winter. Vaccinations for both COVID and flu should be offered to healthcare workers as soon as possible.
“Nurses and other healthcare staff cannot be expected to sustain this type of pressure right into the winter. If the Government and HSE are serious about retaining those who already work in the health service, meaningful action must be taken to ensure safe care conditions for both patients and staff. No nurse wants to have to care for patients in sub-optimal conditions.”
