DUBLIN: The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has expressed concern that hospitals in Ireland are now more crowded than at any point since the pandemic began. This is due to the fact that 376 patients who were admitted went without beds yesterday morning, the highest number since March last year.
The worst-affected hospitals in Ireland include University Hospital Limerick, Letterkenny University Hospital, Cork University Hospital, Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, and South Tipperary General Hospital. The INMO is seeking immediate national intervention in all of the worst-affected hospitals, especially University Hospital Limerick.
The union aims to reduce the number of employees redeployed for vaccinations, as staff redeployment puts extra pressure on emergency departments. It also suggested allowing nursing and midwifery students to become paid vaccinators.
INMO president Karen McGowan said: “Although the levels of COVID are reducing, the long-standing trolley crisis is again rearing its head. They need to know that the HSE will not tolerate overcrowding and ensure that safe staffing levels are implemented.
“We have kept trolley figures suppressed for much of the pandemic, but we are slipping back into old habits. The HSE cannot allow trolley figures to rise and rise,” INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said.
“Overcrowding is simply unsafe for patients – especially during a pandemic. It is placing intolerable pressure on an exhausted workforce who are now working to provide mass vaccinations in addition to a COVID and non-COVID healthcare service,” she added.
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