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JULY was another record-breaking month for numbers of patients waiting on trolleys at University Hospital Kerry, according to the monthly analysis by the INMO.
There were 345 patients forced to wait without a bed this month in the hospital, up from the previous high of 289 last year, a 20% increase.
Nationally there were 9,439 hospital patients waiting on trolleys in July – the highest number ever recorded for that month.
Compared to July 2018, there has been an increase of 33%. When records began in 2006, there were 3,460 patients on trolleys in July, just over a third of this month’s figure. Among the 9,439 patients were 45 children.
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INMO Director of Industrial Relations, Tony Fitzpatrick said: “Each day there are hundreds of patients languishing in corridors, waiting for a hospital bed. Currently over 700 patients cannot be discharged from hospital. In the meantime, hundreds of frontline nursing and midwifery posts are currently vacant due to the HSE’s dysfunctional and bureaucratic employment control processes.
“Vital roles across all services, at all grades, in all hospitals are left unfilled. This has direct negative consequences for patients. We expect increased demands on the health service in winter, but now even summer sees patients crammed into corridors on trolleys. It is creating unacceptable risks for patients and health workers alike.”
