Trolley numbers at emergency departments across the Shannonside Northern Sound region have grown by over 10,000 this year compared to the same period in 2021.
The 2022 INMO Trolley Watch Analysis has shown 27,481 people were waiting on a bed at some point in local EDs so far this year, making it the worst year for hospital overcrowding on record.
Several Emergency Department's in the region have shown a doubling of people being left without a hospital bed on attending the unit. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has described 2022 as a milestone event for overcrowding, with 118,662 people forced to wait on a bed at hospitals nationwide. Galway University Hospital saw a major jump in ED overcrowding with 2021s level of just over 5,000 people left waiting, jumping to 10,000 by December this year. That's followed by Sligo Hospital where an extra 3,693 patients waited on trolleys or on wards elsewhere in the hospital. Figures more than doubled for the Emergency Room in Drogheda with Our Lady's Hospital accounting for 1,314 people waiting this year. Elsewhere in the region, Cavan, Mullingar and Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe all reported significant increases in patient numbers.
While Tullamore Hospital saw the region's only decrease, falling from 2,323 in 2021 to 1,435 this year.
