South Tipperary General is one of the worst-hit hospitals on what the INMO has said is the most overcrowded day at the country’s emergency departments so far this year, and the second-highest ever recorded.
The INMO’s daily Trolley Watch has revealed that today 679 people are waiting on trolleys and chairs at Ireland’s hospitals because of a shortage of hospital beds.
As is often the case, the worst-affected hospital is University Hospital Limerick, where 63 people are waiting for a bed.
Next is University Hospital Cork with 60 and Letterkenny University Hospital with 47, followed by South Tipperary General Hospital where 40 people have been recorded as waiting to be assigned beds.
This brings to 103, the number of people on trolleys or chairs at the hospitals serving Co Tipperary.
‘A hospital in crisis’
The INMO has described South Tipperary General as ‘a hospital in crisis’.
The organisation has said that despite being one of the country’s smaller hospitals, it has more patients on trolleys than some of the largest.
The union has pointed to a lack of capacity and staff in the public health service as being the key driver behind the figures, alongside a recruitment freeze, which sees well over a thousand frontline posts unfilled.
The INMO has called for this freeze to be lifted.
