FIGURES from the INMO have revealed that 2015 was a record year from patients waiting on trolleys at Kerry General Hospital.

The Trolley Watch figures supplied by the organisation revealed the numbers were up 38% on 2014 and the highest since records began in 2006. This is way above the national average of 21%.

There were 1,389 patients waiting on trolleys in the Emergency Department and wards in 2015 compared to 1,005 in 2014. The previous high was in 2006 with a figure of 1,144.

Nationally, from January to December 2015, almost 93,000 patients waited on a trolley for an in-patient bed compared to 77,000 in 2014. This was the highest figure since INMO records began.

However, December saw a decrease in the numbers waiting in KGH with 67 on trolleys compared to 119 for the same month in 2014.

Speaking in the light of the national figures revealed, INMO General Secretary Liam Doran said: “While we welcome the reduction of 13% in the December 2015 figures, the 21% overall increase in 2015 figures compared to 2014 is very disappointing.  Also, the first days of January this year show no sign of the crisis abating.

It is now absolutely vital that the HSE, at national level, and at senior level within all Hospital Groups, immediately commits to fully operating the revised policy. Their priority must be to reduce overcrowding and ensure that nurses can practice safely within a manageable working environment so that we never see these figures again.”

THERE were 128 patients waiting on trolleys at Kerry General Hospital in November, up from 72 in the previous month, according to figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

This represents an almost 80% increase and a whopping 250% increase on the November 2013 figure of 36.

The figures were revealed as the INMO calls upon the Department of Health, and the HSE, to declare the increasing levels of overcrowding, in the country’s emergency departments, a national emergency requiring an immediate, sustained and extensive response.

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The comparative figures, compiled by the INMO, for November this year compared to previous years, showed a 44% increase this year compared to November 2013 with 7,124 patients on trolleys nationwide.

It also showed the level of overcrowding is 53% worse than 2006 when the situation was declared a national emergency.

“The overcrowding of our country’s emergency departments is now, undoubtedly, a national emergency and must be viewed as a crisis,” said INMO General Secretary Liam Doran.

“We must stop pretending that patients can be properly looked after, in hospitals that have 10, 20, 30 and 40 people on trolleys, in addition to their normal workload.  We must also recognise that patients suffer a loss of dignity and privacy which should not be acceptable in this country in any place at any time.”

“This must now be declared a national emergency.  This must see additional funding, being allocated, above and beyond anything being spoken of in the recent Service Plan, so that closed beds can be opened, community supports increased and the additional staff required, to maintain patient care, dignity and privacy deployed without delay,” he continued.

The figures for patients waiting on trolleys in Kerry General Hospital for the month of November from 2006 to present are as follows.

• 2007 – 21

• 2008 – 52

• 2009 – 38

• 2010 – 71

• 2011 – 45

• 2012 – 57

• 2013 – 36

• 2014 – 128 

THERE were 17 people waiting on trolleys in Kerry General Hospital today according to figures from the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO).

This exceeds the number of 16 patients waiting on September 15 of this year which was a record since the INMO started compiling the figures, based on daily checks in emergency departments across the country, nine years ago.

There were 11 patients waiting on trolleys at the hospital yesterday.

In August the organisation called on the HSE to specifically recruit staff for Kerry General Hospital with INMO Industrial Relations Officer, Michael Dineen, describing the shortage of nurses situation as “at crisis point” and “untenable”.

THERE were 72 patients waiting on trolleys in the wards and emergency department of Kerry General Hospital in October according to figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Association (INMO).

This is down from the September figure of 91, but is up 20 on the October 2013 number.

Nationally, there was a 34% increase of patients waiting on trolleys, a trend which is deeply worrying as we come into the peak winter period according to INMO General Secretary Liam Doran.

“For the fourth month in a row the level of overcrowding, in emergency departments across the country, has continued to increase when compared to last year,” he said.

“We are now entering the peak winter period.  These hospitals, with severe and unacceptable levels of overcrowding, will simply not be able to cope with the inevitable increase in demand which will occur in the coming weeks,” he said.  “This is a critical situation and it requires immediate action.”

“The INMO is now calling upon the government, and the HSE, to immediately bring forward the €25 million, which is allocated to address delayed discharges in the 2015 budget, so that it is available, immediately, to provide additional beds, home care packages and frontline staff,” he continued.

The figures of patients waiting on trolleys during the month of October from 2007 to 2014 at Kerry General Hospital are:

October 2007 – 30

October 2008 – 69

October 2009 – 47

October 2010– 35

October 2011 – 30

October 2012 – 26

October 2013 – 52

October 2014 – 72

ACCORDING to the Trolleywatch figures supplied by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, there were 14 patients waiting on trolleys at Kerry General Hospital on Wednesday.

This is the highest figure since September 15, when there was the record number of 16, the most since the INMO started keeping records nine years ago.

The INMO compiles the figures based on daily checks in emergency departments across the country and the HSE does not dispute the figures.