3,096 patients admitted to Naas General Hospital without a bed in 2024 - INMO reveals

A total of 3,096 patients were admitted to Naas General Hospital without a bed in 2024, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation's TrolleyWatch.

While the figure was down on 2023 and 2022 levels (3,483 and 3,345 patients respectively), there was a marked increase on 2020 levels (1,042 patients.)

According to the report, the top five most overcrowded hospitals for 2024 include:

1. University Hospital Limerick: 23,203 patients (record overcrowding for this hospital)

2. Cork University Hospital: 13,162 patients (record overcrowding for this hospital)

3. University Hospital Galway: 10,983 patients (record overcrowding for this hospital)

4. Sligo University Hospital: 7,618 patients

5. St Vincent’s University Hospital: 6,922 patients

In total, 122,186 patients, including 2,043 children, were admitted to hospital without a bed in 2024 according to TrolleyWatch.

INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said the results were “unacceptable.”

She said: “The next Government now has an opportunity to drastically improve the chronic overcrowding issues in hospitals right across the country. Staffing hospitals and scaling up capacity properly to be at the top of the list of priorities for the new government.

“There needs to be a turning point in how healthcare staffing is planned and managed, and it needs to start with an immediate lifting of all recruitment embargoes and moratoriums and focusing on capacity, staffing and conditions across acute and community services.

“We know that because of the high rate of hospital admissions of flu and other respiratory illnesses, our members are 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. 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 added: “The HSE must outline what steps they are planning to take over the coming days to radically reduce the number of patients on trolleys while respiratory illnesses are rampant. We don’t accept that this predictable reality every December and January cannot be planned for in a better way. We know from surveys conducted by HIQA that 72% of patients are spending more than 6 hours on a trolley.

“The medical research is clear, spending more than six hours on a trolley has detrimental impact on long-term health outcomes, particularly for older people. This is now a human rights issue and one which the INMO will pursue with like-minded organisations.”