The number of patients on trolleys in hospitals serving the Shannonside Northern Sound region is almost a quarter of what it was this time last year.
That's according to figures compiled by the INMO's Trolley Ward Watch service.
Figures taken from the first three Mondays of November last year show that a total of 424 people had to wait on a trolley in an emergency department of local hospitals or on wards. Â
That compares with just 112 patients on the first three Mondays in November this year.
On Monday November 4th 2019, there were 71 patients on trolleys in Galway University Hospital alone. That compares with a figure of just four on the same day this year.
Nationally, there were 1,247 patients on trolleys throughout the country on those same three dates in 2019, while this year the total is just 518.
