THERE was a decrease in the amount of patients waiting on trolleys in Kerry General Hospital in January compared to the same month in 2014.
Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) showed 75 patients were waiting on trolleys in wards and the Emergency Department last month, down from 93 in January 2014.
However, nationally the number of admitted patients, on trolleys, increased by 9% in 2015, compared to January 2014 and by 39% compared to January 2013.
The INMO has demanded immediate measures to alleviate overcrowding.
The Emergency Department (ED) Taskforce met, for a third time, on Monday, to consider a draft action plan to alleviate chronic overcrowding in the country’s Emergency Departments.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) stated that it lacked urgency and specific measures, to be implemented immediately, to alleviate what they describe as “the severe, and unacceptable, overcrowding in many Accident and Emergency Departments across the country.”
The INMO has asked for the plan to be revised so that it includes concrete measures, involving the opening of additional beds with appropriate staffing, to alleviate the crisis in A&E overcrowding which continues unabated.
The figures below show the figures for patients waiting on trolleys in KGH in the month of January from 2007 t0 2015.
2007 – 97
2008 – 133
2009 – 93
2010 – 91
2011 – 93
2012 – 64
2013 – 88
2014 – 93
2015 – 75
