Sixteen patients were on trolleys at Cavan General Hospital on Tuesday, 27 October, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Trolley Watch. All 16 were in the emergency department. Nationally, the INMO counted 777 admitted patients without a bed the day after the October bank holiday.
Cavan General is the main acute hospital for much of Co Monaghan. Northern Sound reported the local figure.
Second-highest of the year
RTÉ News said Tuesday's figure was the second-highest number of patients waiting for a bed on any day this year. The highest was 803 on 13 January. On the day after the October bank holiday last year, the INMO counted 417.
Of the 777, 499 were in emergency departments and 278 on wards. More than 199 were on trolleys in hospitals in Galway, Letterkenny, Sligo and Mayo. University Hospital Limerick had 108 patients waiting and Letterkenny University Hospital had 62.
The HSE uses a different count, TrolleyGAR. It put the number of admitted patients waiting for a bed at 544: 387 in emergency departments and 157 on wards.
"A total failure in planning"
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: "It is not acceptable that something as ordinary as a bank holiday weekend can result in this level of risk for patients and staff. It demonstrates a total failure in planning and a total disregard for safety."
She linked the overcrowding to the "cessation of recruitment" and to nurse managers being blocked from filling vacant posts. She said all vacancies must be filled urgently before the busiest time of the year.
The HSE said hospitals are exceptionally busy and that emergency department attendances are at record levels, up by more than 90,000 this year. It blamed several factors, including more visits by older and vulnerable patients, seasonal illness and delayed transfers of care.
Services at Monaghan Hospital remain in the news too. Read our report on the Monaghan Hospital MRI scanner.
