An average of 14 people are being treated on trolleys every day at Tipperary’s main hospital.
Figures show nearly 4,000 patients were left without a bed at South Tipp General in the first 9 months of this year.
The situation is no better at University Hospital Limerick where over 6,500 were treated on trolleys since January.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation claim 3,985 people were left without a bed at South Tipp General Hospital between January and September of this year.
This is an increase of 333 on the same period last year and 3,500 up on the first 9 months in 2007.
In September alone 396 patients had to be cared for on trolleys around the Emergency Department or in overflow areas of wards.
This is the highest number ever for September since the nursing union began compiling trolley watch statistics – just yesterday there were 40 patients without a bed there.
The situation is equally as bad at University Hospital Limerick.
The facility – which caters for patients from North Tipp, Limerick and Clare – has had over 6,500 patients without a bed in 2017. That’s up nearly 700 on the first 9 months of last year and averages nearly 24 patients a day.
Frontline staff at UHL cared for 902 people on trolleys last month alone.
Nationally the INMO report that in excess of 73,500 patients were left without a bed at hospitals across the country – over 8,100 of these were during September.
The nursing union is calling on HIQA and the Health & Safety Authority to carry out unannounced inspections of overcrowded hospitals in the interests of patients and staff.
