Less overcrowding at Naas Hospital
by Paul O'Meara · Leinster LeaderOvercrowding at Naas Hospital eased considerably during September.
The number of patients on trolleys there for the month was 201.
This compares with 220 in 2023 and 382 the year before. In September 2021 some 231 people were admitted to the facility without a bed being immediately available.
Although the figure for September 2020 was 44, this was during the Covid-19 epidemic.
At Portlaoise Hospital some 43 people were admitted during the month which was less than half the total figure (101) for September 2023.
There were no patients on trolleys at Tullamore Hospital in September 2024 or September 2023.
Nationally, over 9,635 patients have been treated in hospital without a bed last month, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. Over 3,000 patients have been treated on trolleys in the three most overcrowded hospitals alone, according to the union.
The INMO has called for an immediate end to all recruitment caps and the urgent implementation of the government’s safe staffing framework to help manage the current increase in hospital overcrowding.
They say the most overcrowded hospitals in Ireland this month were University Hospital Limerick with 1,735 patients on trolleys fro the month followed by Cork University Hospital (1,263), Galway University Hospital (959), Sligo University Hospital (736) and St Vincent’s University Hospital (556).