18 patients on trolleys at St Luke’s following busy bank holiday weekend
EIGHTEEN local patients being treated on trolleys at St Luke’s General Hospital yesterday following a busy bank holiday weekend for nurses and medical staff.
This is one fewer than the 19 patients who were left waiting for a bed at St Luke’s last Friday, according to latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO). By this morning, the number had reduced to 11 patients on trolleys.
Overall there were 557 patients on trolleys in hospital emergency departments or on wards waiting on admission to a hospital bed yesterday, the INMO’s trolley watch figures reveal.
University Hospital Limerick was the worst affected hospital in the country, with 76 patients left languishing on trolleys.
There are 41 patients on trolleys at Cork University Hospital and 34 in University Hospital Galway.
The INMO said 394 patients are waiting in emergency departments, while 163 are on wards or elsewhere in hospitals around the country.
The Health Service Executive warned last week that the St Patrick’s weekend would be a busy time for emergency departments in Kilkenny and across the country.
