Visiting restrictions remain in place at the main hospitals serving Tipperary today due to the flu virus.
Meanwhile the HSE’s million Euro price tag per hospital bed has been described as ‘fair’ by a leading medical expert.
Frontline staff at both South Tipp General and University Hospital Limerick have faced major problems in recent years as the number of patients being treated on trolleys remain stubbornly high.
The Government plans to add an extra 2-and-a-half-thousand hospital beds to help tackle the overcrowding problems nationally.
However there are fears the additions could be over-priced.
Professor at DCU Nursing School, Anothiny Staines, claims the costs are reasonable by international standards:
The ongoing overcrowding means that today there are 544 people on trolleys in hospitals around the country.
According to the INMO University Hospital Limerick – which serves North Tipp – is worst affected. There are 53 people there waiting for a bed.
The situation at South Tipp General is Clonmel remains relatively quiet with just 9 patients being treated on trolleys.
It’s the fourth day in a row that the trolley figures have been over the 500 mark.
A visitor ban remains in place at both South Tipp General and University Hospital Limerick as both facilities combat an outbreak of the flu virus.
