Almost 2,600 were treated on trolleys in Mullingar last year
Just under 2,600 patients were treated on trolleys at Mullingar hospital last year – but dramatic as the figure may be, the hospital actually bucked the national trend through having fewer patients treated on trolleys than during the previous twelve months.
Figures released by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation this week have shown that 2,598 of those who attended at the hospital found themselves on trolleys.
That number was down on the 2020 total of 2,768 – and represents a considerable improvement on 2016, the peak year for trolley occupancy in Mullingar when there were 4,849.
That said, the number treated on trolleys in Mullingar in 2021 was higher than that provided for Tullamore, where 2,323 were counted – a figure almost double that hospital’s 2020 figure of 1,254.
Nationally, over 70,275 patients went without a bed in Irish hospitals in 2021, according to the INMO, which has branded this year’s figures as an “unacceptable” rise in overcrowding and pointed out that overcrowding adds to the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals.
The hospitals with the highest overall figures included:
•University Hospital Limerick: 12,108
•Cork University Hospital: 7,411
•Letterkenny University Hospital: 5,778
•University Hospital Galway: 5,027
•Sligo University Hospital: 4,284
INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “The fact that we have seen the numbers of patients on trolleys rise by 31% during the second year of a pandemic is completely unacceptable. Hospital overcrowding should never be acceptable, especially when we have a highly transmissible virus.
“Radical action is now needed to curb the unacceptable levels of overcrowding in our hospitals. This is not a new phenomenon; the health service cannot continue to make the same decisions year in year out and expect different outcomes.”
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said Ireland’s nursing and midwifery workforce is running on empty.
“They are looking for some kind of indication from their employer that things will be different this year,” she said.
“The commitment nurses and midwives have shown especially in the last month with the arrival of Omicron has been exemplary. While many staff are on COVID-related sick leave, others are cancelling leave and staying longer than they are rostered to ensure patients are looked after.
“The INMO has raised red flag, after red flag with the HSE and Government. We need to see urgent action by curtailing all non-emergency activity in our public hospitals.”