THERE have been more than 4,500 patients admitted to Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) without a bed so far this year, according to new figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
In the emergency department 1,785 patients have had to wait on trolleys between January 1 and October 25 with a further 2,786 on trolleys elsewhere in the hospital.
Following the publication of the figures the INMO will begin a process of engagement with their members focusing on safe practice.
Across the country over 101,240 patients have been admitted to hospital without a bed so far this year, including 582 yesterday,
INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “The INMO Executive Council met yesterday and have reinforced the position that safe staffing underpinned by legislation is urgently required in order to protect patients no matter where they are in the system.
“The INMO will now commence a process of engagement with its members to ensure any instances where they are compelled to deviate from safe practice are resisted to ensure they are not being asked to provide ever increasing services with a reduced workforce.
“Behind the trolley figures that the INMO publishes every day are extremely vulnerable patients being treated in undignified and dangerous conditions. Over 100,000 people have gone without a bed this year and it isn’t even the end of October, this was entirely predictable. It is shocking that the necessary measures have not been taken by the HSE and individual hospital groups to alleviate this level of overcrowding.”
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