Irish nurses and midwives 'working in impossible conditions' as overcrowding continues - INMO

The level of overcrowding in Irish hospitals is "still too high". 

That's according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), which has revealed 497 admitted patients are without a bed today (January 12). 

It comes as record numbers of overcrowding were recorded by the organisation in 2022, with a total of 118,662 patients waiting without hospitals beds throughout the year. 

INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: "The level of overcrowding we are seeing in our hospitals is still too high. We have not seen numbers like we have seen today at this point in January since the INMO began counting trolleys in 2006.

"Nurses and midwives are working in impossible conditions to provide the safest care they can but it is clear that their workplaces are dangerous. 

"Hospitals are not just places of care, they are workplaces. Basic safety is not guaranteed in understaffed and overcrowded wards and emergency departments. The Health and Safety Authority and HIQA must intervene through increased planned and unplanned inspections." 

Cork University Hospital is the most overcrowded nationwide today with 57 patients waiting for beds, followed by University Hospital Limerick (45 patients) and Tallaght University Hospital (41 patients). 

Six of those waiting on trolleys are under the age of 16. 

Just four hospitals are free from overcrowding today, including National Children's Hospital Tallaght, Bantry General Hospital, Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise and Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore.