Major overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick

Photo © Pat Flynn

The hospital – which provides Emergency Department cover for North Tipperary, Limerick and Clare – is the busiest in the country this lunchtime.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation there are 52 patients without a bed there today.

31 of these are being cared for on trolleys around the ED while another 21 are in overflow areas of already full wards.

Meanwhile at South Tipp General in Clonmel there are 19 people without a bed today.

In all there are nearly 400 patients waiting for a bed at hospitals across the country.