Over 1,000 patients admitted to Portlaoise hospital without a bed in 2024

There were over 1,000 patients admitted to Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise in 2024, according to new figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

1,007 patients at the Laois hospital waited on trolleys last year which is up from 992 in 2023. 

Over the last decade trolley figures at the hospital have come down considerably from 1,589 in 2014, a 37% drop. 
Last year the busiest months for Portlaoise hospital were in the summer when 113 patients were on trolleys in July followed by 108 in August. February was also a busy month with 106 patients admitted without a bed. 

Nationally 122,186 patients were treated on trolleys in 2024 which the INMO say is an unacceptable number.

INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: "Nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals should not have to bear the brunt of public anger due to poor planning and lack of capacity in the health service year in, year out.

"The next Government now has an opportunity to drastically improve the chronic overcrowding issues in hospitals right across the country. Staffing hospitals and scaling up capacity properly to be at the top of the list of priorities for the new government. There needs to be a turning point in how healthcare staffing is planned and managed, and it needs to start with an immediate lifting of all recruitment embargoes and moratoriums and focusing on capacity, staffing and conditions across acute and community services.

"We know that because of the high rate of hospital admissions of flu and other respiratory illnesses, our members are currently working in very difficult circumstances. The number of patients being treated on trolleys both in our emergency departments and on wards will have implications for infection control. Placing trolleys on ward corridors where there are no windows or proper air flow systems render the areas unsafe for staff and patients. 

"The HSE must outline what steps they are planning to take over the coming days to radically reduce the number of patients on trolleys while respiratory illnesses are rampant. We don’t accept that this predictable reality every December and January cannot be planned for in a better way. We know from surveys conducted by HIQA that 72% of patients are spending more than 6 hours on a trolley. The medical research is clear, spending more than six hours on a trolley has detrimental impact on long-term health outcomes, particularly for older people. This is now a human rights issue and one which the INMO will pursue with like-minded organisations."