1,268 Patients were recorded on trolleys across the month of July at University Hospital Limerick, representing the highest rate of hospital overcrowding nationwide.
However, despite the Dooradoyle facility possessing an overcrowding rate of 27% higher than the next busiest facility at University Hospital Cork, the report shows some significant improvements for the Mid West regions main hospital
There has been a 31% decrease in the number of patients waiting on trolleys since last month alone with 569 less patients in the Mid West waiting on a bed in July.
The latest published figures also represent a marginal decrease on pre pandemic levels where over 1,300 patients were recorded on trolleys in UHL in 2019.
Meanwhile Ennis General Hospital has seen a four fold increase on its trolley numbers with just five patients waiting on trolleys at the facility in July of 2019 compared to 23 last month.
Although UHL has recorded some slight improvements in the month of July , the national outlook shows an overall 52% increase in patients without access to a bed from this time last year.
This comes to a national total of 9,191 patients without hospital beds in July with 95 of this cohort being children under the age of 16 .
INMO Director of Professional Services Tony Fitzpatrick has described the revelation as a cause for serious concern adding that unless there is a hospital-by-hospital plan to tackle overcrowding, we are in for a very bleak winter which will see nurses and patients in extremely unsafe circumstances.
