Hospitals serving Tipperary have been among the most overcrowded in the country this year.
University Hospital Limerick – which serves North Tipperary, Limerick and Clare – was the busiest in the country last month.
In the year to date, University Hospital Limerick has had 7,238 patients on trolleys, up 500 on last year and up over 6,000 compared with 2007.
Meanwhile, South Tipperary General Hospital has had 4,531 patients without a bed from January to October, which is a rise of 400 compared to last year and up nearly 4,000 on a decade ago.
In the first 10 months of this year, there was a total of 82,500 patients left on trolleys in hospitals throughout the country.
This represents an 8% increase compared with 2016, and a shocking 96% rise against 2007.
University Hospital Limerick was the most overcrowded with 719 patients left without a bed last month alone.
South Tipp General in Clonmel was also among the busiest in October with 546 people on trolleys around the emergency department and in overflow areas of wards.
However, there was good news for Tipperary this week after a new 12 bay overflow unit was opened at South Tipp General to help ease overcrowding.
The South West Hospital Group confirmed this week that progress has also been made for an additional 40 bed modular unit.
Funding has been ring fenced for the project and tenders are being invited this week with a closing date of December 1st.
