Nursing unions are warning hospitals are already experiencing the pre-Christmas surge in the numbers being admitted without a bed.
The INMO says 629 patients are being treated on trolleys in Irish hospitals today.
University Hospital Limerick – which serves North Tipp – is the most overcrowded hospital in the country with 99 people waiting for a bed there.
Meanwhile there are no beds available for 18 people who have been admitted to TUH in Clonmel.
Colm Porter of the INMO, says the high levels of overcrowding are an indicator of the difficult weeks ahead facing patients and nurses:
“This is a real indicator that patients and the staff – nurses and midwives who are caring for them – are in for some difficult weeks ahead.
“The thing with our members is that they do feel like this is Ground Hog Day again. We see this every year – our members are expected to do more in increasingly overcrowded situations.”
