The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) is again calling for direct ministerial action to tackle the trolley crisis.
This comes as the union has today recorded 654 patients waiting on trolleys in hospitals around the country.
University Hospital Limerick, which serves North Tipperary, is once again the most overcrowded hospital in the country with 100 patients without a bed there today (Wednesday).
Following that, Letterkenny General Hospital in Donegal has 54 patients waiting on trolleys in the emergency department.
Cork University Hospital, University Hospital Galway and St. Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny round out the top five with 50, 46 and 43 patients without a bed in each hospital.
The nurses union says that staff are also dealing with 1,400 covid cases in hospitals which is adding to the pressure.
The situation in UHL is of particular concern for the union as the number of patients without beds has gone above 100 for the second time in two months.
The INMO is calling on HIQA to urgently investigate overcrowding at the Limerick hospital and make recommendation which Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly must act upon.
Limerick based Senator Maria Byrne called for clarity on a review of UHL today.
Senator Byrne says the Taoiseach promised a review, yet the Health Minister only committed to considering it when he visited the hospital recently.
