UHL most overcrowded with 424 patients on trolleys nationwide

James Cox

There are 424 itted patients waiting for beds this morning, according to today’s Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Trolley Watch.

Three hundred and five patients are waiting in the emergency department, while 119 are in wards elsewhere in hospitals.

The most overcrowded hospital is University Hospital Limerick (UHL) with 82 patients waiting for beds.

This is followed by University Hospital Galway (43 patients), St Vincent's University Hospital (39 patients), Cork University Hospital (31 patients), Letterkenny University Hospital (27 patients), and Cavan General Hospital (20 patients).

The numbers in UHL follow scrutiny of the ongoing issues at the hospital.

The Taoiseach has said that UHL is funded to be fully staffed, as he was told that patients and workers did not feel its emergency department was safe.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said people regularly faced “chaos” at the emergency department, and that the hospital was in a “constant state of emergency” due to a lack of beds and staff.

The comments were made in the Dáil as an inquest was ongoing into the death of 16-year-old Aoife Johnston at the hospital in 2022.